Hunting Season
by JessieKage
Summary: When a boy with seemingly no reiatsu is hunted down by hollows, Ichigo's and his family's semi normal lives is in for a change. For the better or for the worse... Warning for chapter 7, contains gore and mental terror.
1. Saviour

**A/N: This is one of my first stories and I hope you all will like it. I've worked on this one for a while and four chapters are done and I'll try to update each week (until the four finished chapters are posted, then we'll see when the next update is). In the beginning I planed to finish the whole story before posting it here on fanfiction, but I'm very slow when it comes to writing this on the computer, so by posting it now I hope I will get motivated to write faster.**** And I'm unsure of which rating I should have on this story, T for now, but it might climb up to become M due to possible violence and gore, please tell me if you think it needs to be changed.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach, as everyone knows it belongs to Tite Kubo. But Hjouru is my own character and it will appear several others, but I'll mention them in the beginning of each chapter (some has a bigger impact on the story than others).**

**I accept any form of critic, praise, flame ect. Just tell me in a review what you think of the story, if it's good or bad. Oh! And if you find any spelling errors please tell me (I would appreciate if you told me where it is also). And if there is any questions, I'll see if I can answer them without spoiling the rest. At last, please read and review and enjoy the story.**

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**Hunting Season**

**- This has Happen -**

_This take place after the Arrancar war or The Winter war as it also was called… Aizen lost his precious Espada in the living world and was unfortunately able to escape before the captains could capture him and have him executed. He lost this battle because one of his right hands, betrayed him… Ichimaru Gin… While Tousen Kaname died when he protected Aizen from Shinsou's long ranged shots._

_Ichimaru was striped from his position as a captain, but was allowed to stay in the Gotei 13 as a seated officer in squad 10. This however made Matsumoto Rangiku happy, but her captain Hitsugaya Toushirou, didn't like it that much, but nothing less accepted the situation since it was an order from the Sou-taichou himself._

_Four months has pasted since the war and nearly every thing was like it was before the whole incident…The only difference is that Ichigo now know that his father is a shinigami. Like normal, hollows still appeared and were sent to Soul Society or to Hell. Rukia was placed as a guardian over Karakura Town and together with Ichigo they watched over the Town and its inhabitants. She lives with the Kurosaki family for the moment – as Isshin's third daughter, as he puts it -, where life is like normal… or as normal as it can be when three members in the family are shinigamis and two of them fights hollow to keep the citizens out of danger. Every thing has been calm so far… but things can rapidly change… for the worse or for the better…_

**- Chapter I: Saviour**** -**

Heavy breathing and the sound of running feet's echoed through an abounded street of Karakura. No one was there, even when it still only was 6pm and if they were, they wouldn't bother to look at the boy, who only seemed to be in a hurry. But that's not the case… the boy is running, running for his life, away from the monster hunting him, which no one but him could see…

Suddenly the monster gives up a blood curling howl and the boy thought that his blood would freeze by the mere sound, it sent chills down his spine and he panicked. He looked behind himself and did absolutely not like what he saw… the monster was only few meters behind him and kept coming closer…

Everything happen so fast, one second he was running, the other he was knocked over and hit the wall very hard, it felt like his skull cracked by the force and he could feel a hot, sticky liquid trickle down his neck. He was unable to get anywhere since the monster was standing above him, showing its sharp claws and teeth, smirking like a madman in triumph, its prey at its feet and will soon cure the acing hunger in the chest and at the same time making the creature itself stronger.

Before the boy passed out due to the hard hit to his head, the exhaustion and the horror he was put through, he saw a blur of black and orange with something very long and sharp. The setting sun's last light reflected itself in the sharp edge, making the object look even more dangerous than it already was. By an unknown reason he was afraid of the object the figure held in its possession, then he couldn't keep himself conscious anymore and feel into the darkness…

**XXX XXX XXX**

_Images rolled on like a film in his mind, he didn't even know if they were real or just fantasy. He couldn't see any surroundings, just a blurry face of a young girl forming inaudible words with her lips. He managed to catch the last phrase she said; "I will always follow you…"_

**XXX XXX XXX**

'_Where… am I… am I dead..? No, I can't be, if I was, my body wouldn't ache like it does…' _his body twitched a bit due to the pain he felt, thenheard some faint whispers, _"Is he awake?"_, he heard it was a female voice,_ "You should let him sleep Karin."_ He tried to open his eyes, but they only flickered a little and remained closed, _"I know, I just thought he was wakening." _Then he lost consciousness again and everything went dark once more…

**XXX XXX XXX**

Yuzu looked down on the feverish boy; he was very pale and was sweating. When her brother first brought him here, he was covered in cuts on the whole body, some deeper than others and now he mostly resembled a mummy, with all those white bandages on the body instead. She sighed and went after another of these small white towels and a bowl of cold water. When she returned he was twitching a lot, like he tried to escape something, sweat and tears trickled down his face and she could hear him mumble, or more of ranting, he kept repeating the same thing over and over again... 'Please, don't… please, stop…'

"Dad!" she called and almost instantly her father appeared in the door way. It took him only a glance at the boy to understand what the worried call was about, and gave the boy a small shot, it worked almost instantly and the boy was knocked deeper into unconsciousness, into a dream less slumber.

When the boy finally woke up, it was dark outside and he moaned in pain, the back of his head hurt like hell and so did his back. It was first then he noticed the blonde girl in the room, she was standing over a bowl with some liquid inside and held something white in one of her hands. _'That isn't _that_ girl…'_ He made an attempt to rise and succeeded to get up on his elbows, then a similar white thing slide down his forehead and stopped in front of his eyes.

"What… the…" he said weakly with a raspy voice, his throat was hoarse, like he had screamed for hours. Just then the girl turned around and saw him, "Oh? You're finally awake, how do you feel?" she said with a voice filed with concern. She was wearing a small white uniform, which was slightly familiar but he couldn't remember from where.

"I guess… I've been better… but I feel fine… if my head and back… doesn't count." He replied with a weak voice and a small smile on his lips, "I don't wanna be rude… but what's your… name miss?"

"Kurosaki Yuzu, what's yours?" she said while looking at the boy, taking in his features. He had black middle short hair and gentle red eyes; for the moment he didn't wear anything on his upper body since it still were covered in the bandages, but she remembered that he looked well trained.

"Zenro Hjouru… and thanks for all the help." He smiled at her and she could tell just by looking at him, that he meant it. "By the way… what happen with the monster?" he had a thoughtful expression on his face, looking around the room, taking in its features. He was in a small room, with barely any furniture at all; it was like the room was made to have injured persons in it.

"What monster..? Onii-chan brought you here, after he found you unconscious on the street, three days ago." She could hear that his throat was dry and offered him a glass of water, which he gladly accepted and drank it quickly. It took a few minutes before what she said sunk into his mind, probably because of the hard hit he had recieved.

"What? But what was it that I saw then… Wait, three days ago? Was I out that long?" Hjouru was shocked and tried to remember what happened before he was hunted by the thing, but failed miserably… he couldn't remember anything! He only remembered waking up in an alley with no clothes on his body and shortly after he "borrowed" some, the creature appeared from no where and started to chase him.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Let's see… I've been here for…" he started to count on his fingers "Six and a half day by now," he sighed and shoke his head "and still suffers from this stupid amnesia, how typical. I mean, this is stupid, I can't remember a single thing! I just keep have these strange dreams about that girl! And she doesn't say anything else but 'I'll follow you everywhere', what the heck does she mean by that? And I can't see her anywhere!"

The boy was located on the roof of the Clinic, speaking to him self due to pure boredom. "What to do, what to do… Isshin-san said he didn't need any help for the moment and the others are at school… Man this is so boring!" he half yelled, flailing his arms and legs rapidly, it was then he spotted a small lonely boy on the street, around the age of 10, he looked really lost.

Everyone just walked past the boy like they couldn't see him or like he didn't exist at all, he looked at everyone who past him with pleading eyes and was on the verge of crying. Hjouru couldn't stand it and jumped down from the roof and walked towards the boy.

The boy thought that Hjouru would walk past him and was very shocked when he stopped next to him! "Hi, is there any problem kid?" Hjouru asked this very politely and it was first now he saw the small chain on the kid's chest, _'Why's that thing looking so familiar?'_, the kid just stared at him; pale on the face, his mouth hanging open. "Ehmm… Earth to the Kid," Hjouru waved his hand in front of the boy's face, "Hello, you look like you've seen a ghost." He said with a small laugh, patting the tiny boy's head in a comforting manner.

"Y-you can s-s-see me!" the tiny boy stammered, by the looks of it he couldn't believe it himself.

"Umm… shouldn't I be able to, I mean you're standing less than one meter away from me, right?" needless to say that he is very confused, _'Man, this kid must be very lonely if he reacts like this when someone talks to him.'_

"I-I don't know, y-you're the first one to talk to m-me after I d-died in a car accident, one week ago…" the kid's eyes shone like his life had gotten a new meaning, when Hjouru first lay his eyes on the boy; they were looking dead.

Hjouru flinched, "I beg you pardon? I must've heard wrong… it sounded like you said that you were dead, like in no longer living." He looked at the boy, begging silently that he had heard wrong and would receive a 'you've been fooled!' answer, but non came, only a small nod. _'Oh, shit! I'm talking to a ghost!'_ and he fell to the ground unconscious.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Pheeww…" Hjouru sat down on an empty bench, they had searched for hours and the last spot to search in was Yumizawa Children's Park. The ghost boy needed help to find his sister; who also died in the accident, to be able to pass on to the other side and Hjouru hadn't the hart to turn him down, so here they were, looking for a girl that maybe not even was in the living world at all.

"Kid, don't wanna ruin your hope, but she might already have passed on." He said tiredly.

"No… she's here, I can feel her presence." The boy said while looking around, smiling. "Are you sure? You know, my feet kills me right now." Hjouru moved so that he would sit more comfortable on the bench and let out a delightful sigh.

"Yeah I'm sure, we often came here to play when we still were alive…" the boy went silent, staring at a point behind Hjouru. It was like he had been paralyzed, but not by fear, it was something else… "Nee-chan…" he whispered "Nee-chan!" this time he shouted and when Hjouru turned around he saw a small girl on the swing, she couldn't be older than 6 years.

She looked up when the small boy shouted and was quite shocked; but she started to run towards them when she recognised the boy as her brother. She hugged him tightly and cried softly at his chest, "Onii-chan…" she said weakly "There, there, calm down, I'm here now." And he whipped away some tears from her cheeks.

Suddenly a nostalgic feeling crept over Hjouru, making him uneasy and made him start to look around. Then he saw it… a black hole of some sort, around 300 feet (around 100 meters) from them… and something tried to make its way out of it!

When the way to familiar skull mask appeared he panicked, he grabbed the siblings' arms and started to run away from the hole. He knew that these monsters were fast and that they needed every second they could get, to even have the slightest chance of escaping this thing's sharp fangs.

**XXX XXX XXX**

The seal of approval started to make its hollow warning sound and Ichigo was slightly frightened, but only because by mere surprise. _'Damn! Why do a hollow have to show up now?'_ he looked at the watch, _'One hour till the school day ends… well it can't be helped.'_ He grabbed his bag and ran out of the classroom, yelling a lame apologise to the teacher about family business. Rukia decided that he could take care of it alone and wrote down the remaining notes for him, so that he could read it later when she turned in her weakly report to her Captain in Soul Society.

Ichigo soon changed into his shinigami form, after hiding his body and performed several shunpos, to get to the hollow's location faster.

**XXX XXX XXX**

'_We have to get away!'_ Hjouru thought desperately while running for his life, he dared to look behind himself, but regretted it gravely. _'Shit! It's closing in.'_

Suddenly the girl trips over her own feet and falls "Nee-chan!" her brother calls, "Oh no!" Hjouru shouts and made an attempt to get the girl back on her feet's, but froze when a clawed hand grabbed him around the throat; making him unable to breath.

The monster brought him closer to its own masked face, it started to laugh in an insane way, sending chills down the spine and made the hair stand straight out on the boy in its possession. **"Ahhahah, I found you!"** it was clearly that this monster was just as happy as a child on Christmas Eve.

Hjouru grabbed the monster's arm in a weak attempt to make breathing easier, he tried to bend the bony talons of his throat, but they wouldn't budge. He struggled with all his might, kicking with his feet's violently, but it only resulted in the grip tightening, tears found their way down his cheeks and saliva trickled slowly from his mouth. He could hear the kids scream in fear, but it sounded so far away and the sound of his blood in the head was overwhelming. The monster opened its mouth widely, ready to bite of his head. _'This is it…'_ he thought sadly and closed his eyes…

A loud shrike of pain and the pain of the hard impact with the ground, made him open his teary eyes again. The monster's right arm was severed from its body, the same arm that had held him around his throat. Then he saw a figure in pitch black clothes, with hair in an intense orange colour… "Ichigo…" he whispered shocked, after removing the limp limb from his throat "Is that you...?"

Said teen looked the kid in the eyes, "You can see me..?" he asked stunned. Hjouru didn't know what to say, so he gave him a small uncertain nod. **"Shinigami…"** the creature hisses in a threatening and venomous filled tone, while holding what's left of its arm, whining slightly in pain. The orange haired teen's respond was a glare just as threatening as the monster's words. "Leave him alone you damn hollow!" he says with Zangetsu raised, ready for battle.

The hollow's tail moved from side to side just like an angry cat's, but it didn't attack as Ichigo had expected it to do… **"Give me the boy and I'll walk away peacefully, sparing yours and the two children's lives…"** the hollow nodded in the siblings' direction, but kept its eyes on Ichigo just in case, **"Deal?"**

Hjouru was terrified; he couldn't see Ichigo's face just the smirking hollow's; which wasn't that relieving. His eyes shone with fear and he looked from Ichigo, to the hollow and back again, he shivered, the only thing he could do was to wait for his dome; life or death…

"You know what hollow…" Hjouru's blood froze, it sounded like he would agree "Screw you! I'll never sell out my friends!" The boy was very stunned _'Say what..?'_

"_Come on Zenro-san. Just call me my given name, no need to be so formal, we're friends remember?" The girl looked towards his direction and made a small pirouette. "Then you should just call me Hjouru as well, like you said we're friends no need to be so formal." Her face is still blurry, but he could see that she had brown hair and white clothes… and a big friendly smile._

"**What did you just sa…"** further than that, it didn't get in the sentence, before it was purified by a cut from Zangetsu. The attack had take less than one second, so the hollow didn't have time to react. It left the world with a pained roar and then it was gone from the surface of earth.

"Ichigo… what was that… that monster?" Hjouru asked while getting up on his trembling legs, when he stood somewhat steady, Ichigo laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's called a hollow… it's when a souls chain of fate has eat itself up completely, leaving nothing but a hole in the chest left…" Hjouru looked at the two siblings, "You mean _that_ chain on the chest, right?" Pointing at the two children, who came up to them when the monster was gone.

"Yeah… the hole in their chest resembles their lost hart, so in order to easy that pain of loneliness they feel, they hunt down and eat others souls…" he stopped talking when he saw Hjouru's teary face cry even more, "What is it now? It's over, no reason to cry, right?" Hjouru dried his tears as good as he could, "No, it's just… I thought I would die, it was so close to eat me… then you came and saved me…" a thought just hit him "It was you that saved me before wasn't it? You know at the street?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised that you remember that, you hit your head pretty hard." He then brought out Zangetsu; but kept the clothing on and walked up towards the kids. "Do you guys feel ready for a konsou? Because we don't want one of those monsters after you again, now do we?"

"No mister we don't… it won't hurt, right?" the girl asks shyly, "No it won't, all you have to do is to stand still while I do this, ok?"

"Yes mister," the boy turned his attention at Hjouru "Thank you so much for the help in finding my sister, I don't think I would have found her if you didn't helped me, so goodbye and thanks again." He smiled a soft smile and Hjouru couldn't stop himself from smiling too, "Yeah, happy journey kids, take care."

And then the konsou began, a sky blue light surrounded them, then two black butterflies flew to the sky and the blue light died down like it never had happen…

_I will follow you everywhere, because we're friends…_

**XXX XXX XXX**

"He's asleep now, so what did you want to talk about?" the raven haired girl asked, looking at a teenage boy with fiery orange hair. "Rukia, could we take it outside?" Ichigo asked pointing at the ceiling, "Sure." Was the short reply he recieved.

"So… what was it of such importance, that made us unable to speak inside?" she said it with a playful voice and spoke in this way intentionally, just to annoy the strawberry… which she succeeded in.

"Ha ha, very funny… I wanted to talk about our little _guest_, I'm worried about him…" Ichigo said with a deep frown on his face, looking up at the star filled sky. Rukia looked at him urging him on to continue. "I wonder why the hollows are targeting him, I mean…" he looked at her "I can't even feel his reiatsu and yet hollows gather around him like ants to sugar…" Rukia couldn't stop herself from laughing slightly at Ichigo's choice of words, his lips twitched a little like he was about to start smiling, but kept himself from doing so.

"So far it has been two hollows that literally said that they wanted him as a snack… but why him! One of them said he would even let me and two other souls walk away just like that, if he only got Hjouru."

This made Rukia's eyes widen "But hollows don't ask just about one soul! They want the strongest one they can find and it would let _you_go just like that? Even I find it hard to sense the kid's reiatsu, and I'm good at it! Besides, why ask for only him when he only are on the average level for normal souls. It's even surprising that he could see you at all!" it was a short pause "Wait… you said that they literally told you…when did this happen, tell me about it."

"First time was when I found him and brought him to our house one week ago…" Ichigo begins his long explanation and got the feeling of going through the same event once more.

_Flash back__…_

"Leave him alone!" the orange haired teen said in a threatening voice.

"**Do you know him?"** the hollow asked in a low hissing voice. "What?" the teen was shocked by the question and lost his stance temporary.

"**You heard me, and by the looks of it, especially the one on your face, you don't… therefore, why don't you just give him to me and I will leave peacefully… what do you say?"** the hollow asked with a smirk.

"Go to hell, will you?" was the short mocking answer, and this time was it the hollow's turn to be shocked and surprised. **"WHAT!" **it screamed before it was vaporized by a mighty swing from Zangetsu…

_End Flash back…_

"And surprisingly enough, it was right there the hollow ended up." Ichigo finished with a shrug. Rukia just rolled her eyes and nudged him to continue.

"And today short before the school ended…"

_Flash back…_

Hjouru lays on his side, panting heavily from the strangle grip.

"**Give me the boy and I will spare you and the two kids over there."** The hollow nods towards the two siblings. **"Deal?**

_End Flash back…_

"So… do you have any idea why they're after him Rukia?" Ichigo says while looking at the big shining moon.

"No, I don't… the only reason they would have, is if he has a lot of reiatsu and is a master at hiding it." She said, not serious about that part at all. "But you should keep an eye on him when you can." Rukia says with a voice filled with concern.

"Yeah, that part of keeping an eye on him won't be that difficult… dad said that he will stay here until we hear from the police… which can take some time, since he isn't reported missing and has been here for one week already." Ichigo said with a slight worry in his voice… "He hasn't mentioned his parents once yet during these days… it seems like he still suffers from the amnesia, but I thought he would have recover from it by now. He seems to start remember some things, 'cuz sometimes he tense up and space out." His frown deepened again. _'When I think about it, the only thing you clearly remember about yourself is your name… who exactly are you… Hjouru? ... Why does it feel like I've missed something very important? And why do I always have a strange feeling around you, that isn't about protection?'_

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**Might as well say this now that it's not going to be any parings, except for ****minor ones. I was thinking Ichigo x Rukia, Hjouru x Raya (one of my ooc's) and maybe, just maybe Yuzu x another of my ooc's.**

**Hope you liked it and next chapter will be called "The Eight Day". Until then please read and review.**


	2. The Eight Day

**A/N: Hiya, back as I said! Thought I should try and update each friday til four chapters are posted, then we'll see.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, but Hjouru's mine.**

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- Chapter II: The Eight Day -

"Onii-chan, Hjouru-chan… Breakfast's ready!" Yuzu calls while knocking on Ichigo's bedroom door.

"Huh..? Okay…" she hear her brother's drowsy answer. When she's half way down the stairs, she hears a loud thud, followed by a surprised scream. Her brother probably fell out of his bed and straight on Hjouru, who lay next to him on a portable bed. "What the hell was that for!" she hears the small boy shout, shortly followed by her brother's apologising words. She shrugged and left them to take care of those matters on their own.

"What did I do?" Hjouru asked while rubbing his stomach, where Ichigo's elbow had hit him and it had token him all of his willpower to not puke. "Sorry, I got stuck in my bed sheets and fell…" come the apologising voice from the floor next to him.

It was first now Ichigo got a good look on Hjouru's neck. It had dark bruises forming a hand, where the hollow nearly strangled him, exact the same type of bruises that Orihime had when her brother had grabbed her on her leg. "Your neck…" he began, "Mmmm… what about it?" Hjouru asked while getting dressed "Does it hurt?" Hjouru froze where he stood and lowered his arms, which still held in the T-shirt he was just about to put on. "Yeah… how come you ask?" came the slowly answer, Ichigo looked at him like he was insane.

"Your neck is covered in bruises, similar to those a friend of mine had. She said they hurt more than the cut on her arm did at that moment."

"Say what?" and he took of to the bathroom next to the room. When he looked into the mirror, he saw that there was indeed a large bruise around his throat. "…You don't happen to have a scarf or something, do you Ichi?"

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Iiiichiiigooo!" Isshin screams while flying towards the boys, when they entered the kitchen. Ichigo evades his flying father easily, who unfortunately crashes into Hjouru, who isn't used to these surprise attacks and was behind the real target. The red eyed boy is knocked over at the floor and stays there.

"Ups..." was the only thing Isshin had time to say before he got a roundhouse kick from his orange haired son. But luckily Hjouru is unharmed and just stands up, so that he could walk to the dinning table for some breakfast. Soon the "warriors" joins them at the table, after their fight as well (which Ichigo won easily), to eat their breakfast too.

"Why're you wearing a scarf? It isn't cold outside." Karin asks a bit annoyed because of her father's behaviour.

"Well… I thought it would look good, but… maybe I'm wrong…" he said excusingly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Aww, don't listen to her, you look great! The girls won't be able to stand away from you!" Isshin shouts with his usually hyper voice, fake tears running down his cheeks rapidly (the tears was apparently from happiness or proudness for Hjouru) and gives a thumb up, which makes an angry vein pop up on Ichigo's forehead and a sweet-drop on Hjouru's.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Dad we're going for a walk… and we'll be gone for a while!" Ichigo calls while both he and their guest got dressed (he added the last part after an elbow in the ribs from Hjouru), then they headed out. At the same time the phone starts to ring and Yuzu picks it up, a few seconds pass before she calls on her dad, it was something very important.

"So Ichigo, where're we going?" Hjouru asks curiously, when the left the house.

"We're going to Urahara's Shoten," said teen replies "and the others will be there too."

"Really! This might be fun!" Hjouru says in a happy, but yet very curiously tone. He had never meet Ichigo's friends, only seen them from the window or from the roof, when they came to pick up Ichigo on the mornings.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Back at the Kurosaki Clinic Isshin gets disturbing news…

"… Are you sure… but it can't be right..! But someone must be missing him… I understand… thanks anyway." He puts the phone back on its place, he is in a slight chock and his eyes had a hint of confusion. _'How can this be? Someone must be searching for him. If not…'_

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Yuzu's worried face; it was clearly that she cared a lot about their guest. "How did it go?" she asks.

"Not as well as I had hoped… the police informed me that no one that match Hjouru's features were missing… and they don't even know if he exist, since they couldn't find any data about him, no birth certificate or any thing." He shakes his head in confusion, not rally sure what to do.

"So what will happen to Hjouru now?" her dad looks at her with big smile and a small glint in the eye "That means…" he start to say with a serious voice and finish the last sentence with his usually goofy, hyper active one. Whatever he said made Yuzu's eyes shine with joy and a big happy smile take place on her young face.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Umm… H-hi my name is Zenro Hjouru and it's nice to meet you all." He says and gives the people in the room a small bow. Needless to say that he's nervous, with so many people watching him.

"Hello, Hjouru-san." A man wearing a hat with white and green stripes, a green coat and clogged sandals said. It also seemed like he had a white fan and a small brown cane. "My name is Urahara Kisuke and welcome to my shop."

Next to speak was a girl with big gray eyes, long brown/orange hair and very big breasts. "Hi, my name is Inoue Orihime and it's nice to meet you too." She says with a happy voice and gave him a sweet smile, plus a small polite bow. _'She's very nice, even if it's our first meeting.'_ He thought happily, somehow he felt safe around her, like she could make even the saddest person smile only by talking to them.

Next up was a big Mexican boy with wavy middle long brown hair and because of the way the hair was in, only one brown eye was visible. "I'm Sado Yasutora…" Hjouru noticed that this man preferred to not talk very much, besides he recognised the man as one of Ichigo's friends from school, who came and picked him up with two other persons on the mornings. "But you can call him Chad, he's used to be called that by now." Ichigo puts in after his friend's short introduction was done. "Umm… 'kay." Hjouru said uncertain and looked over at the big man, who only shrugged.

Then it was the thin, tall, blue haired and eyed, glass wearing boy's turn. He gave Hjouru a suspicious look, which made the boy feel uncomfortable where he sat. "My name is Ishida Uryuu and I'm a Quincy." The last part had a hint of proud, like he was a superior and Hjouru could only sweat-drop in lack of knowledge.

"What's a Quincy?" he asked.

Uryuu was completely off guard for that statement. "What do you mean with 'what's a Quincy?' You live in the same house as a freaking Shinigami!" he points at Ichigo, who gets pissed-off, "and yet you have no idea what a Quincy is!" he shout, not believing his ears.

"Umm… pretty much" He says shrugging and rubs the back of his head, "no one ever mentioned anything about Quincies, but I believe I heard your name once or twice." But that was only when the Mod-soul Kon needed his body fixed, and Hjouru had no intension on saying that.

Uryuu was still pretty pissed-off, but started to explain what a Quincy was and Hjouru nearly fell asleep around… five times, before the Quincy's history were done. Unnecessary to say that he didn't give damn about their history, but he thought they were stupid for not listening to reasons.

After that it was the manager's assistants' turn. Hanakari Yinta; a small red haired kid, with a rude behaviour. Tsumugiya Ururu; a small black haired girl, who seemed shy and unsure on her self. And last but not smallest, Tsukabishi Tessai; a big muscular man with glasses and short brown hair in a weird hairstyle… plus a big moustache that covered his over lip completely.

"Well I guess that's all of you…" Hjouru begins but is interrupted by someone he didn't see.

"You know I'm still here and I haven't got the chance to introduce myself yet." The voice came from the cat, which currently lay on the table, but Hjouru didn't think it was the cat and asked "Could you please show yourself?"

"Are you blind child?"

"_You're not my child! Only a replacement of one of the Devil's children!" 'A woman's voice? Who's she yelling at?'_

"I'm one the table." When he looked back at the cat, he couldn't believe his eyes, it had spoken again! "My name is Shihouin Yoruichi…"

"Don't call me child," he said darkly and had an unreadable look in his eyes. His tone had chocked everyone except from Ichigo. "And how can the _cat_ talk?" he shouted one the verge on panic.

"Calm down Hjouru, I can change back to my original form, if that makes you more comfortable." The cat said.

"So you're not a real cat, mister." He stated and started to calm down.

"NO DON'T!" Came a high scream from the strawberry, "If you're gonna do that, do it in the other room!" His cheeks had got a slight red colour, which didn't pass by Yoruichi undetected. "Hahaha, always so innocent, but I love to see how people react. Besides, yours were very funny the last time."

"Don't drag me into your talking!" he screamed and merely seconds after that Yoruichi transformed.

Hjouru didn't expect Yoruichi to be a woman, but when he realised that she was naked he blushed furiously and looked up at Ichigo, who had covered his eyes but was still able to peak through his fingers. Hjouru started to smirk and covered his eyes and Ichigo's with his hands, earning a "What the…" from the teen.

When Yoruichi finally had put on some clothes (much to everyone's relief… well, Urahara didn't seem to mind that much though), everything became pretty normal once again.

"You're no fun child, now I couldn't see his face." Yoruichi complained…

"_You are a child of the Devil! Stay away from the others!" It was the same woman and she slapped a small boy no older than 5 years hard on his cheek…_

The line had been crossed… He didn't know why, but he was seeing red.

"STOP CALLING ME CHILD!" everyone froze where they sat, no one, not even Ichigo, had heard Hjouru yelling like that, he was furious. Despite the high tone, it was dark and cold, it even sent chills down the spines on them and his eyes shone with an insane red colour. Yoruichi was speech less, just like everyone else in the room. No one knew what to say.

"DON'T CALL ME CHILD! I don't wanna hear _her_ crazy voice in my head!" He clutched his head and tears ran down his cheeks. The Dark feeling didn't disappear, it even felt like the temperature dropped drastic and the sensation of dread grew stronger.

"Yoruichi-san! You should _do_ something… now!" Ichigo shouted, to be honest he felt a little scared, this kid's reiatsu feels pretty nasty and he still had the feeling fresh in mind. _**"Does humans as well as Shinigamis never learn? Man, you guys sure are stupid."**_ _'Shut it Hichi! This time it wasn't _my_ fault!'_

_Flash back…_

"Phew… well, now they're safe." Ichigo says after the konsou were done successfully.

"Ichigo… what exactly are you? I mean you suddenly show up in strange clothes, like what's the idea with the black outfit?" He walked around his saviour in circles and poked the clothes where ever he could reach. "And what a huge sword! It looks just like a … _butcher_… _knife_…" His eyes grew big with those two words and the flashes came again.

"_Come son, let's play tag. I'm 'it'…" It was like it was a jump in events, then... "Mum! Please STOP!" a small boy's shriek rang out in what looked like to be a forest… __Flashes of something sharp and red blood flying entered his mind._

Hjouru stopped poking and paled, he felt sick and confused of what he saw _'Is this part of my lost memory?'_ Ichigo failed to notice that Hjouru had no intentions (or stopped for that matter) to continue with his poking and called out in annoyance. "Grraahh! Knock it of already! How old are you? Five? Honestly, you act just like a child!"

"_Child of the Devil…" That sadistic voice made it feel like someone was stabbing him in the heart… And the terrified shrieks from the young kid made themselves reminded._

Hjouru had stumbled back by surprise but regained his footing quickly. He looked down so that his bangs covered his eyes. "For your first question; how the hell should I know? I still don't remember my life! And second; don't ever call me that again… I hate it." He spoke in a low dark and slightly cruel voice, striped from emotions. They locked eyes and Ichigo was greeted with a pair of red glowing ones, they shone of danger, heck, they even held glint of malice and cruelty that he didn't even know the boy could possess! His voice was also so much different from the usually cheery one, it made his hair stand on edge and chills run down his spine.

Ichigo didn't know what to say and it was like the temperature was falling, he almost jumped out of his skin when it felt like something was crawling on him! He looked down but saw nothing… then he understood, this was the effect of the kid's reiatsu and somehow had a familiar touch to it too, but he couldn't remember from where. _'This is Hjouru's reiatsu..? It's so cold and dark, it feels like it's drowning me…'_

"Hjouru… I'm really sorry for calling you a child!" he managed to say while trying to build up a defence with his own reiatsu, but failed miserably… he couldn't concentrate on anything, especially not with this drowning feeling on his chest and mind… then it lessened. The cold became warmer, the pressure shrunk till it was nonexistent and he felt like he could breath normally again. It was like nothing had happened and he found himself sigh with relief.

'_Why was his reiatsu so familiar...?'_ his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by another voice in his head… his hollow. _**'Tch, this is quite amusing… you really don't recognise it?'**_ Ichigo's eyes widened, his body tensed, _'What do you mean?' __**'Hahahahaaa… You can't, can ya!'**_ he waited for more taunting, that surprisingly never came… the hollow was silent once again.

He was brought back to reality by the impact of a hug, which made him to look down, only to see Hjouru's teary face. _'Great, now he's crying again.'_ He placed a comforting hand on top of the kid's head, "Come let's go home." The response he received was a weak nod, but it was enough… it had been a hard day for the kid, both physically and emotionally…

_End flash back…_

"Yoruichi-san… I think you should follow Ichigo's suggestion." Urahara says with a slight worried voice and held his cane tightly. "What should I say then? It's not like I did anything!" The lights suddenly broke and glass pieces fly in every direction, thanks to Orihime's Santen Ketsuhun (Three-God shield) no one was hurt. A reddish glow shone from the boy and the sinister feeling grew stronger, it appeared as he couldn't hear anyone in his state of despair. He still clutched his head like his life depended on it and the tears kept coming.

Then Yoruichi did something no one expected, she appeared in front of the boy and hugged him tightly. At first he struggled to escape her arms, but managed to calm down and hugged her back while sobbing heavily. The nasty pressure slowly decreased until it was non-existing, still Yoruichi didn't let go of the boy and caressed the boy's head… just like a mother would do, to calm her crying child.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Several hours later…

"Just remember that you can't tell my sisters about this." Ichigo reminded Hjouru while they walked home and the house came into view. "Yeah, yeah, I know already… personally I don't see the point in keeping it hidden. I mean, they get so worried when you don't come home at night sometimes or when you just take off like you do…"

"I think we should hurry, before your dad gets crazy and tries something weird, as he usually does when you're late Ichigo." Rukia put in, walking next to them. She and Renji had joined the "party" at Urahara's earlier and she was now walking back with them to the house, while Renji took off back to Soul Society again or was freeloading at Urahara's.

When they opened the door, it was like a bomb had gone off! Both Isshin and Yuzu were hyperactive for some unknown reason and Karin only sat at the table and looked at her family with annoyance – as usually -,while her face spoke clearly _'Why is my family so God damn weird?'_

"My boys! Daddy has some bad and good news!" The crazy parent yelled like a mad man, Hjouru quickly took cover behind Ichigo, who looked extremely pissed by his father's behaviour. "Well what's the news then?" his son asked, while Hjouru carefully watched Isshin, just in case he would try something… like learning how to fly again.

He turned his attention on the covering boy. "Well the bad one is that I've spoken with the police… but they didn't find anything about you, no one has been reported missing or so… _Buuut_ the good news is that I will adopt you as a second son, just like I adopted Rukia-chan as a third daughter!" he pointed at Rukia_ -_ who stood next to Ichigo and Hjouru -, with that said he started to drag the both teens to the dinning table, while Rukia followed them casually.

"Say what!" both screamed in surprise and confusion, while being dragged by the mad-man.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Two figures were sitting on the roof of the Kurosaki Clinic under a star filled sky, one was rather short with black hair and the other was tall, with fiery orange hair. "It's nice of your father to invite me to the family… especially since I don't seem to have my own." He looked up at the moon and hugged his legs, Ichigo saw that the boy's eyes were a bit watery when he looked at him. They had sneaked out to the roof when the dinner was eaten, mostly to escape the noise his father and sister made.

"I wanna ask you something." The orange head said

"About today, or am I wrong?" the other one replied in an empty tone. This made Ichigo's hart sting, _'He tries to hide the fact that he's utterly sad… it can't be fun to learn that you're on your own and that no one's missing you…'_

"Yeah… wanna tell me about it or should I just leave it?" He asked, knowing if he got the same question, he wouldn't tell… so to his big surprise, the boy just nods. "I'm not sure myself why I react like that… it's just… it feels like something bad happened to me when I was smaller and that this word was related to it… Then we have these nightmares of mine. I keep dreaming about a crazy woman who chases or rather hunts me through the woods and she's holding…" he stopped in the middle of the sentence and became very pale and he looked away from his friend. "… She's holding in something thin and sharp, I think it's a knife. Then she chases me to a river where I fall in… I can't breath and everything turns black… then it feels like I'm being torn into pieces… the pain is unbearable and then I always wake up."

"That was a creepy dream, hopefully it's just that and not reality…" Ichigo rises to his feet's and reached out one of his hands towards Hjouru, who took it and got hauled back onto his feet.

"Ichi… I'm scared… what if I won't wake up one day and the pain will just continue until I can't take it anymore?"

"Then I'll make sure you wake up, so don't worry. Come, let's go back to the others, I heard Yuzu has made a dessert to celebrate." Hjouru looked Ichigo into the eyes and gave a small smile, then they went back in.

**XXX XXX XXX**

The rest of the evening passed on peacefully, Yuzu had made a delicious cake and everyone ate as much as they could.

Despite this, Hjouru had really hard to sleep, it was past midnight and the others slept as heavy as stones, when he finally fell into an uneasy slumber… dreaming about a desert, stripped from any signs of life…

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**Sorry if this was wierd and so, but I didn't know how to put it and this is what I could come up with. And if you find any of the Bleach Chars OOC, please tell me. I tried to have them in char, so let me know if I did it good or bad. Please R & R.**

**Next chapter will be called "Caught my Prey"...**


	3. Caught my Prey

**A/N: Thank you Substitute Deathberry for your review, you have no idea how happy it made me, I even got an insperation kick and nearly finished the fifth chapter! :D I'm not sure what a Marry Sue is, but I take it as a random char that's just there or a char that you haven't worked a history to.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach, only my OOC's; so far Hjouru and Sorx.**

**Enjoy and please leave a little review when you're done, everyone can.**

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**- Chapter III: Caught my Prey -**

"Goooood mooorniiing Iiiichiiiigooo!" the crazy father of the Kurosaki family screams while flying towards his orange haired son, who punched him in the face as a counter attack. "You did it again, I'm so proud of you my son! I've got nothing more to teach you." Isshin says while rolling around on the floor, clutching his bleeding nose.

Ichigo looked on his father with annoyance, "Why the hell do you always attack me in my sleep?" then he noticed that something was missing or rather that _somebody_ was missing. "Where's Hjouru?"

"Poor kid went out for a walk and he looked rather upset… You must be snoring really loud my son!" and punched his son on the shoulder… Ichigo finally had it and attacked his father, so there they were, rolling around and fought each other on the floor.

Then realisation hit Ichigo like a bunch of bricks, he changed clothes quickly and ran out of the room as quickly as his legs could carry him, leaving a slightly surprised father behind. "What flew into him?" and he scratched his beard.

Rukia was sitting together with Ichigo's sisters when he came down stairs. "Rukia we gotta go!" he shouted, not stopping when he came into the kitchen and continued towards the front door. Rukia saw that this was serious and didn't ask any questions and quickly left the table.

"What's wrong?" she asked when they ran at the same pace.

"Hjouru is in grave danger, he's outside all alone." The orange haired teen answered.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Hjouru was in deep thoughts and let his feet carry him where ever they wanted. He sighed _"_Why won't these strange dreams leave me alone one single night?" he kicked at a small rock and sent it flying across the street. "But _she_ wasn't in this one this time, and that's something at least." He gave up a heavy sigh "I wish they would've explained more about what Renji said yesterday…"

_Flash back…_

Urahara Shoten, half an hour after the incident.

Everyone had gathered around the small table at the Shoten again, drinking some tea that Tessai had made. "So, now when you've heard some about us, why don't you tell us something about yourself Hjouru?" Urahara asked interested.

This was one of those few questions that Hjouru hated. "There isn't much to say about myself… the truth is… I don't remember anything about my previous life before Ichi saved me… not my parents, siblings… if I have or had any, nor where I'm from." He was ashamed, he felt like a total loser not remembering important stuff like this, it was _his_ LIFE for God's sake! He felt so embarrassed that he couldn't look the others in the eyes, so he looked down on the tea cup on the table instead.

Their conversation was interrupted by loud foot steps and angry voices, which was followed by hard knocks on the front door. It was two persons, one female and one male, the female voice was familiar to Hjouru, but he couldn't place the male voice. Tessai had arisen from his seat to check on who the visitors were and came back with Rukia and a red haired man. He had many tattoos on his face, plus the red hair was in a style that reminded him slightly about a pineapple, which amused Hjouru greatly. _'So we have a strawberry, a pineapple, a princess, a tiger and probably something else too in this gang.'_

"Ahh. Welcome Kuchiki-san, Freeloader-san. What brings you two here this lovely day?" the manager asks with his business voice. "Do you need to check up your gigais? I'll give you 25% discount, just because we're such good friends!"

"No, that's not why Renji and I are here. Renji you tell them." Rukia stated and somewhat ordered this Renji guy to speak.

"Well, I got news from the Soul Society… bad ones…" it was first now he noticed Hjouru, _'Oh shit! How much does the kid know?'_

"Then what's the news?" Ichigo asked and then he saw Renji's nervous glimpses at Hjouru. "Don't worry, he already knows everything." He added waving his hand lazily towards Renji, like saying in a different way 'not to worry'.

"But ain't the kid a bit too young, to be involved with this?" the red head asked a bit uncertain.

"You know, I do have a name so use it, it's Zenro Hjouru… and yours is Renji if I got it right?"

"Ah, yes Abarai Renji… well according to the 12th division, it's been a huge increase in hollow activities in this town than what's normal. Almost every hollow that appeared the last week have been on Adjucha level, but luckily no arrancars yet… if you ask me, it's just a matter of time before Aizen decides to send in the lower ranked ones or the whole artillery, to finish us off."

Of course sat Hjouru there like an idiot, he had no idea what 'Soul Society' was or what they meant with 'increased hollow activities' and what was an 'arrancar' for something? He could only sweat drop in lack of knowledge, "Umm… what's a Arran-…" further than that he didn't get before Rukia's and Renji's cellphones went on as well as Ichigo's Seal of Approval, warning for incoming hollows. Everyone left except from the people living in the shop. Hjouru tried to go too, but was stopped and held in a tight grip by Tessai. "Let me go!" the boy screams, kicking around him and struggles like his life depended on it. He had such a strong urge to get away from the house, but didn't know why.

"I can not do so, it's too dangerous." The man answers, trying to make the teen understand… then he heard it, a blood curling howl from a hollow… and it was inside the Shoten! Tree pieces flew every where when the hollow broke the ceiling and the walls, then it knocked Tessai, who still held onto Hjouru, straight through the wall. The others had been buried in the pile of fallen tree, just because this never had happen before and thus they were taken by surprise. The hollow however had followed Tessai and Hjouru to the outside, where it now shrieked out its happiness.

"**Found ya!"** the hollow said with a malicious voice. Tessai rose to his feet in order to protect the boy, but was quickly knocked far away to the side by a nasty blow to his face. **"Now it's time to eat ya!" **it stood in front of its target and stretched out a clawed hand. Hjouru couldn't move when he saw the hand creep closer to his throat, he was paralyzed by fear, but started to struggle when the thing in front of him lifted him up by holding around his neck.

The hollow felt like it was in heaven, the prey everyone wanted, was in his possession, in his hand… he only needed to bite down on the fragile boy's head and the power he held would be his and only his! In its moment of blind joy, it failed to notice that those who he buried and the man he knocked over, once again were back on their feet and the hollow's death was instant. When the pain hit the creature, it gave up a last shrike of pure agony before vaporising into nothing, leaving the terrified boy behind.

_End Flash back…_

Hjouru was dragged back to reality when a nostalgic feeling creped over him, he felt very vulnerable when he saw where he was… Yumizawa Children's Park… full of open space, no where to hide. _'Perfect…'_ He thought bitterly and started to run, a weak attempt to get away from the hunted feeling he had. Unfortunately he ran straight into a dead end and the feeling grew only stronger each passing second… he turned around when he thought someone had creped up behind him and stood face to face with a bone white mask, his eyes widened in fright and shock.

The hollow smirked and its eyes went into thin lines. **"Hehe, found you, my little prey." **It said in a mocking sing song voice. **"No one's going to save you this time… They're deadly busy, if you get the point." **The hollow made a pause and saw how Hjouru got even more frightened. This however made the hollow even –if possible- more happy.** "But they ain't dealing with someone like me, oh no, they're dealing with something much worse… **_**Arrancars**_**."** It whispered the last part in the terrified boy's ear, which sent chills down the spine on him.

Before the black haired teen could react, the hollow had rammed one of its two tentacle looking things, straight through the center of his chest, the solar plexus. He was chocked beyond words, when he looked down on the thing in his chest… blood oozed out, trickling down the tentacle that had pierced him. He couldn't feel any pain and wondered if he would at all… was his nerves and spine severed? Hjouru cough up a mouth full of blood, _'This… is… it…'_ was his last thoughts when his skin turned all dust like and blew away in the wind…

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Damn! Where is he? We've searched for hours!" a very irritated strawberry yelled out in frustration, while slaying his tenth hollow for this day. "You weren't joking about the increase Renji. It's only a few hours past noon and I've already token down ten of them."

"Whaaaat?" Renji said in a mocking tone "Only ten? I most have token down at least _fifteen_ hollows." A fight would probably have broken out if not Rukia had choose to appear at that moment, silencing both of them. "Will you two knock it off! Or have you forgotten that Hjouru is in danger?"

Renji looked really confused. "What do you mean? Kid ain't gotten any reiatsu, so he should be fine from the hollows."

"That's not true… he's extremely good in hiding it, in fact he's got a pretty high amount of it and somehow the hollows knows that. He's-" Rukia started to explain. "Yeah, it's true you don't think he got any until you feel it yourself and trust me, it's a nasty feeling you'll get from it." Ichigo added very serious, plus interrupting what she was going to say next. "Thank you for the information 'strawberry', as I were saying, Hjouru's like an expert in hiding his reiatsu, I even asked him about it and he said he had no idea what I were talking about… soobviously he does it without knowing himself. And he's defenceless, like someone else I know before he got his powers." The last part was directed towards Ichigo and he'd reacted on it immediately, to Rukia's great amusement.

He was about to respond when they felt several strong hollow reiatsus in three different directions. They looked up at the sky and saw no less than 15 gargantas opening and revealed human looking figures in white clothes. "It seems like we'll have to split up." Renji said not sounding too happy with the idea of 5 against 1, they had enough problem with one on one, but this were five! _'We're screwed.'_ He thought bitterly.

"What if we try to gather them in the middle, then we could watch each others backs?" Ichigo suggested, surprising all of them. "It might actually work…" Rukia said after given it a quick thought. "Renji, you go left! Ichigo, you take the middle and I take the right! Agree?" Rukia somewhat ordered, while looking at the boys, both nodded and then they headed for the battle field.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Soul Society.

Some of the members from the Research and Development Department looked down on the screen of Karakura, when the sensors suddenly went of, warning for Arrancar activity in the town. Their eyes went wide when they saw the cheer numbers of them, they quickly sent a messenger to the Sou-taichou, the substitute Shinigami was in need of reinforcement and fast! Not long after the message was sent, a quick Captain meeting was hold to decide which of them that should go to the living world.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Welcome Shinigami! It seems like I was able to score high, when you chose to be my opponent… lucky for me, but not for you." The voice was very proud, like the owner saw himself as a superior. The voice itself belonged to the arrancar, who stepped out from the garganta in the middle, he had the ordinary white Arrancar shihakushou, but the kimono was a bit different; it looked like a vest, only that the shoulder parts were a bit pointy and reached out over the shoulder a bit. The mask covered the whole lower part of his face - the nose, cheeks and the mouth -, the mask itself looked like it belonged to some kind of animal, but Ichigo couldn't tell what kind of animal. The man had stormy grey eyes and light blue middle long hair, he also had what looked like a number tattooed on the left side of his chest. "My name is Sorx Arce and I am the Novena Espada… and also one of Aizen-sama's most loyal followers. Fraccións! Attack and surround him!" The man ordered his subordinates.

'_Shit!'_ Ichigo thought and quickly raised his over sized sword to block, he succeeded somewhat, but having four arrancars against you at the same time is hard and it's quite impossible to block all the attacks, especially when they're coming from different directions at you. Ichigo quickly realised that he needed the extra power and speed his bankai gave him. He began to collect the needed reiatsu and his eyes got a pale but still bright sky blue colour, then he uttered the magic word…

"Bankai!" Dark reiatsu blocked him from view and when he once again appeared he wore different clothes, the hakama stayed the same but the kimono got slimmer at the arms and at the chest, it went down like a cloak and ended at his feet with tattered ends. But the greatest change wasn't his clothes, but the size of his sword! It no longer was broad and looked like a butcher knife, now it was small like a normal katana, but had a pitch black colour and a small chain attached to the end of the handle, it also had a hand guard now, shaped as a reversed Indian sun symbol. "Tensa Zangetsu!"

Despite him being in his bankai form he was at a huge disadvantage, Sorx ordered around his subordinates with great precision. The four arrancars he was up against had released their true forms and judging by their strength, they've must been on Adjucha level when Aizen turned them into Arrancars. Attacks came from every angle, if he blocked one, another blade swooped down on him from the sides or from behind, sometimes even from above or beneath him. Ichigo's whole body was covered in small cuts, when he made the decision to bring out his hollow mask or he wouldn't live long enough to see the sun touch the ground and day turn into night…

**XXX XXX XXX**

Things didn't go better for Renji, his clothes were torn and he had several deep gashes over his back, he was drenched in his own blood and sweat. He blocked an incoming blade and quickly used shunpo to get away. The manoeuvre was a failure, since two of the five opponents he was facing went for his unguarded back, the two others stood back and watched his movements. So when he appeared once again the only warning he received before the double strike, were the buzz of their sonido coming up behind him.

"Bankai!" Red reiatsu bursted from him, knocking the two attackers of their feet. His appearance didn't change that much, he only got a small coat covered in pink fur over his shoulders and his right arm. The blade however was a whole different story; it resembled a gigantic bone snake! "Hihiou Zabimaru!"

The arrancars drew back a bit, clearly intimidated by the bone snake, but what seemed to be the leader for the group ordered them to attack anyway. Renji still hadn't released his limitation and he planed to save it until they released their swords, which they unfortunately did under this attack…

**XXX XXX XXX**

Among the three of them Rukia was the one who had it easiest, her opponents had only been Gillians when Aizen turned them into arrancars. But that didn't stop her from having a really hard time. Two of the five arrancar had released their resurrección and now resembled a pig and a dog.

"Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" She commanded when the two of them charged straight at her accompanied by a third unreleased arrancar. A blizzard broke free from her sword and froze the three of them inside the ice. The ice broke apart and left behind two badly injured arrancars, the third and unreleased one had broke apart together with the ice.

'_One down, four to go.'_ She thought bitterly, her wounds stinging painfull. She had received a deep gash, deep enough to touch the bone over her left arm, to minimize the blood loss she had covered the wound with ice. Her eyes widened in disbelieve, when another Arrancar stepped out from the open garganta and took the place as the fifth one left behind. _'Is there no end of them?'_

**XXX XXX XXX**

"What is your business here!" Ichigo yelled towards the Espada, his voice sounded a bit twisted due to the hollowfication.

"That, you don't need to know," Was the simple response he got from the man "because you will die here and now!" With that he made a finishing movement with his arm, allowing his subordinates to sever the boy's body as much as they wanted. One released Arrancar attacked him straight on and he lifted Tensa Zangetsu to block the incoming blow. Then out of nowhere another released one went for his unguarded back, he tried to push away the first Arrancar and then move his sword to block the other one… but his sword didn't move, the Arrancar in front of him held his sword in a firm grip, it didn't even budge when he pulled. He couldn't even let go of the zanpakutou, since the enemy's free hand was squishing it tightly to the handle.

It didn't matter if the hand was badly cut up, the Arrancar refused to let go of the sword. _'Shit!'_ Ichigo thought helplessly, he couldn't evade the incoming blow, he could only wait for the blade to chop off his head. Instead he was greeted with the clear clang of a blocking sword. _'I… I was saved?'_

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**Please tell me I got the japanese names for the clothes right, if not I'm sorry and another thing I hope I got right is the description of Ichi's bankai; 'cuz if I remember correctly the nazis used the symbol as it was and didn't revers it, but if I'm wrong I'm very sorry. A little funny thing I thought about when I wrote that; is that the symbol is for the sun and when it reversed as in Ichi's bankai, doesn't it mean that it's now the sun's opposite, meaning the moon. But that's only if I'm not wrong.**

**I had to change a little because it was missing words, tell me if anything else seems to be missing.**

**I've drawn a pic of Sorx Arce and posted it on deviantart, just check my user for a link or you can write .com and you'll get there too.**

**Next chapter is called "True Appearance" see you then.**


	4. True Appearance

**A/N: Thanx for your review again Substitute Deathberry, I'm glad you liked the cliffy. I think I didn't mention this before, but Hjouru's about Rukia's hight so he does look like a little child, even if he isn't one.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach, just my OOC's.**

**Enjoy and leave your thoughts in a review after you have read! :D**

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- Chapter **IV: True Appearance -**

"_What is your business here!" Ichigo yelled towards the Espada, his voice sounded a bit twisted due to the hollowfication._

"_That, you don't need to know," Was the simple response he got from the man "because you will die here and now!" With that, he made a finishing movement with his arm, allowing his subordinates to sever the boy's body as much as they wanted._

_One released Arrancar attacked him straight on and he lifted Tensa Zangetsu to block the incoming blow. Then out of nowhere another released one went for his unguarded back, he tried to push away the first Arrancar and then move his sword to block the other one… but his sword didn't move, the Arrancar in front of him held his sword in a firm grip, it didn't even budge when he pulled. He couldn't even let go of the zanpakutou, since the enemy's free hand was squishing it tightly to the handle._

_It didn't matter if the hand was badly cut up, the Arrancar refused to let go of the sword. 'Shit!' Ichigo thought helplessly, he couldn't evade the incoming blow, he could only wait for__ the blade to chop off his head. Instead he was greeted with the clear clang of a blocking sword. 'I… I was saved?'_

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Yo! Thought you needed some help." A very familiar voice called out behind him.

"W-what? H-Hjouru, why're you here?" Ichigo asked utterly confused, for the first; they were standing in mid _air_, second; he had _two_ _zanpakutous_ and three; he wore what looked like a torn _white_ _shihakushou_. "I thought I told you, I came to help." Said person said while looking back at his friend. It was then Ichigo saw it; _'A mask fragment?'_

"Out of the way damn traitor!" The Arrancar he just blocked roared at him, which in turn pissed the boy of. Much. _'Why does he call me traitor? I haven't done anything, besides I don't even know this guy.'_ "What the hell are you talking about?" Hjouru asked him in a very rude manor. He didn't even bother to sound polite to someone he hated at first sight.

"You heard me! You're siding with the enemy! You should be loyal to Aizen-sama!" The Arrancar continued to roar, his face was crimson due to the anger he felt.

"And who the hell is that? I don't know anyone by the name Aizen." The black haired boy said truthfully, he had never heard the name, yet it sounded familiar and gave him a bad feeling. "Besides Ichigo ain't my enemy, he's my friend!"

The Arrancar didn't like the answer at all. "How dare you being so impolite against Aizen-Sama!" He continued with his yelling and launched another attack against Hjouru, who barely blocked it thanks to his instincts. Fortunately, he had blocked the blow with one sword, which left him with one arm free and used that chance in giving the opponent a shallow cut across the chest. The arrancar backed off in surprise and to get out of the sword's range, this action was followed by many nasty curses from his mouth. _'Damn him! Who is he? He's one of us, so why is he against us?'_ The Arrancar thought confused and enraged.

"Hjouru… thanks, but you shouldn't be here, it's dangerous." Ichigo said thankfully and tried to make his friend understand the danger in this situation. But it was just as useless as 'telling Kenpachi you don't want to fight'. The boy turned around towards Ichigo, "Even if it's dangerous you're still here-," He barely dodged the sword, meant to chop off his head, instead of his head it got a little of his black hair.

A vein throbbed on his forehead and he quickly turned around surprising both the carrot-top and the Arrancar. "I wasn't done yet!" He yelled and gave the Arrancar a hard round house kick, to his surprise the Arrancar flew like a glove and crashed in the park below their feet. "Oops! Errr… Who are these guys anyway? And how the hell did I do that!""

The Strawberry just stared _'He doesn't know?'_ "Arrancars." Was the only answer he gave the black haired boy. "Whaaat! These are Arrancars, I thought they would look different, you know like those monsters stalking me!"

'_The vest he's wearing is sipped all the way up, so I can't tell if he has a hollow hole, but the mask fragment on his left cheek and those red markings on his right, plus his reiatsu, indicates on an Arrancar.' __**'Finally, I wondered how long it would take for your thick head to figure that out!'**_ Ichigo pretended he didn't hear that._ 'So if he still suffers from the amnesia, it would explain why he doesn't know he's one himself… Wait, how come he hasn't asked me about my mask? He'll probably ask me about it later, now isn't the time.'_ Suddenly a thought hit him, "What about Rukia and Renji! They might need more help than I do!" worry spread in his eyes and face. "Don't worry; I saw Chad and Uryuu hurrying to Renji's location, so my guess is that Orihime is on her way to Rukia's." Hjouru explained, to make his friend less worried.

"Yeah, but-,"

"No buts! They're strong enough. They went with you the last time these guys attacked. Have fate in them Ichi, like they have in you." He said, looking straight at Ichigo with sad eyes.

'_He's right!' _With anew resolve in his eyes and with a calmed mind, he heard his hollow urging him on to finish this, _**'Go get 'em king. I would do it myself if I could, but ya still have me in a pretty tight leash…'**_ Ichigo just smiled inwardly, they still worked on working together, but they were making progress. "Let's get this over with Hjouru!"

Said boy went up next to him and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, let's do this."

**XXX XXX XXX**

'_Damn… I put down one of these bastards and another takes its place instead, there's no end of them!'_ The red haired man thought bitterly. One of the Arrancars used its sonido and actually got through his guard with a raised sword, ready to take his life with a single blow. Renji couldn't stop what was happening, he could only watch as the opponent's sword got closer and closer. "Crap…" He whispered and looked straight into his soon to be killer's eyes.

Around hundred small blue arrows flew by his face and many stuck into the Arrancar, who gave up a death shriek and crashed into the ground where its body cramped a bit before it stopped moving forever. It wasn't a pretty sight; the Arrancar's body looked like a ragdoll where it laid, bones broken and where in odd angles. "I knew the day would come when a Shinigami needed a Quincy's help."

"Ishida? You could've hit me too with those!" He shouted out pointing at the archer, who only adjusted his glasses and replied calmly. "Please, my aim is not that bad and you're welcome." Even if the hot-headed Shinigami didn't say it out loud, he deeply appreciated the help in keeping his head on his shoulders.

Instead of another Arrancar, four Adjuchas took the defeated rag-doll's place. The hollow's advanced towards them, maws open widely while the sharp teeth's reflected in the bright sunshine. "El Directo!" A deep masculine voice called out, this was the only warning the hollow's received before a bright green-bluish blast collides with them and they were destroyed.

"Chad? You're here too?" A chocked Renji called out, a nod was the respond he got. _'Well, I ain't complaining, we got a big chance to survive this and actually win this battle!'_

**XXX XXX XXX**

They moved like insects around her, they were everywhere, swarming was a very good word to describe it and it was quite literally too. The Adjucha, who joined the fight, could make minions resembling bugs the size of a human skull. Then the fact that she had to dodge and block swords, kicks and punches, _while_ avoiding the venomous bugs, didn't make the situation any easier.

The leader of this group of Arrancars advanced swiftly towards her and hit her fast and hard in the stomach. The blow to a sensitive area caused her to loose her balance slightly, but that was the only thing the Arrancar needed to grab her neck and swords arm. Rukia looked closely at the Arrancar, he had a mask helmet with three sharp spikes in a line on the middle of his head.

"Now now, how shall I do this? Should I finish it quickly or slowly? One gasp for air for 'quick'" His grip tightened around her throat, making it hard for her to breath, "and two for 'slow'", his grip loosened slightly, but not by much, "Hmmm? You choose, Girly." He smirked madly at her. Oh, how he loved to torture women before he killed them, painting the surrounding area in their Sweet. Red. Blood. And their screams were the best, so high pitches it aroused him.

"How about none of them?" Another female voice interrupted and threw something small at the Arrancar's back. He gave up a sharp cry of pain, dropping Rukia in the process when he grabbed his shoulder and pulled out a small throwing knife from the wound.

"You BITCH!" He yelled and looked truly lunatic, crazy eyes looked straight at the dark skinned woman. She returned the gesture with a cocky smirk and raised eyebrows, challenging him into fighting her.

"You don't mind if I take over this one, now do you Kuchiki-san?" The woman asked, not taking her eyes of the Arrancar.

"Y-Yoruichi-san? N-no, just go ahead, I don't mind." Rukia managed to say while massaging her soar throat. She then turned her attention towards another Arrancar, suddenly a golden glowing projectile speeded past her head and sliced all the bugs into two pieces, then took aim at the responsible hollow and split its mask in two. The shining projectile turned out to be Tsubaki, Orihime's only offence option.

"Kuchiki-san! Are you hurt?" Inoue called from behind with a worried voice, waving her hand to get to get the other girl's attention.

"Yeah, but I'll let you look at it when this is over!" Rukia called back, the targeted Arrancar realised his disadvantage and hissed out. "Estrangular, Víbora (Strangle, Viper)!"

His appearance change to that of a huge snake, and as the name indicated, he got a long thin tail, perfect for strangling or to be used as a whip. The upper part of a snake skull rested at the top of his head, two sharp fangs went down to his cheek level, plus they were dripping with what appeared to be poison.

Their opponent was clearly an Adjucha, but by combining their strengths they were able to take him down. Yoruichi was almost invisible, appeared and disappeared after she landed a hard blow or throwing another knife. Rukia on the other hand, looked like she was dancing a deadly dance. Her blade met the other's blade several times, but sometimes it met with the enemy's soft flesh too. Shallow paper cuts or inch deep gashes, he received them all. Orihime defended Rukia from the snake's blade on several occasions with her golden shield and sent out Tsubaki to attack.

A kunai pierced him through the neck and a very deep gash across the chest, ended the Arrancar's existence. The battle was finally over on her side, but she could feel and hear the two other still fighting. "Yoruichi-san, what about Ichigo and Renji? We need to help them." Rukia managed to say between heavy inhaling of air.

"Don't worry Kuchiki-san, Kisuke is at it and so is Chad and Uryuu. You just rest and let Inoue-san look at your wounds." Yoruichi reassured her while sitting down to rest herself.

"O-okay…" she said while doing as she was told, then her eyes widened in realisation and she burst out "What about Hjouru?"

"Don't worry, he's with Ichigo and Kisuke… and it is as I feared…" She said and looked towards Ichigo's location with worried eyes.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"WATCH OUT!" Ichigo yelled when a sharp projectile shot towards his small friend; who barely dodges it in time. "T-thanks Ichi-" further than that he didn't get into the sentence, before a very deep gash suddenly appeared on his right shoulder and he gave up a painfull shrike. He lost focus due to the pain and lost the grip on his swords and started to fall fast towards the ground.

"HJOURU!" Ichigo yelled and tried to go after his falling friend, but was stopped by Sorx's minions each time. He had no other choice but to watch his friend fall to a certain death.

Said boy's vision started to blacken, he could barely feel the wind rushing around him and his best friend's shout sounded so far away. He couldn't move his right arm and his whole body was scorching with pain, especially where the blade had cut through muscle and bone. Tears started to appear in the corners of his eyes, _'Am I going to die?'_ was his last thought before he was caught by a pair of strong arms and he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was his friend's hart breaking shout, then everything went black.

"HJOURU!" Ichigo yelled one last time, he couldn't believe, didn't want to believe that someone important to him died in front of his eyes and not be able to do anything about it… not again. He had lost his focus and the arrancars took advantage of that, in fact, one snuck up behind him and was seconds from cutting of his neck, until… "Nake, Benihime!" was cried out and a red beam cut the attacker in half. The one occupying Ichigo backed off in fright and surprise, looking down on the new opponent wary; who disappeared with a shunpo and reappeared next to the orange haired kid.

"Focus Kurosaki, or it will be the last thing you do." Urahara spoke calmly, holding Hjouru tightly with one arm and Benihime in his other.

"U-Urahara-san… h-how's Hjouru doing? Is, is he…?" Ichigo stuttered, not sure what to think. His friend was deathly pale, but thankfully still breathing.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. I've stabilised him, but if I leave him on the ground they'll kill him for sure… I guess you've figured out what he is by now, haven't you." A small nod answered his statement, "Then what will you do now, Kurosaki?"

"It doesn't matter what he is, he's my friend and I'll never sell him out." Ichigo replayed calmly.

"That's good to hear. Now, let us take care of these, shall we? You can take that gentle man over there and I'll take his friends." Then they charged. Urahara was up against three fractions, all of them released into their true form, let's say that he had quite the hand full there.

Sorx was pretty though for being the novena Espada only Ichigo noted. Both had received scratches and slashes of different depths and Ichigo's mask was almost gone, only the left upper part was left, despite the mask, he felt exhausted. Sorx had the upper hand since he didn't join the fight until now, but somehow Ichigo managed to make the Espada to back off a bit. He quickly gathered all his energy and yelled "Getsuga Tenshou!" and a black crescent moon crashed into Sorx, but when the smoke settled he looked way different. His back was bent and was covered by sharp spikes, even the top of his head was be-spiked and the mask now covered the whole face. His feet's had grown claws and his hands had long sharp talons. You could say that he resembled an armadillo crossed with a hedgehog now, complete with a spike covered tail and armour.

"Now you've really done it… Try and beat my new form if you can, trust me, it won't be easy." The Espada mocked and to his great amusement, the last piece of Ichigo's mask cracked and broke, changing back his eyes to their normal chocolate brown colour. He immediately started to breath very heavily, his body ached all the way to the bones. He felt like colapsing. _'Shit! I can't lose now!'_

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Why're you protecting that traitor? You should just let us kill him!" One of Urahara's attacker yelled, slashing at the foe and only landing a hit at the green striped hat, knocking it off of its wearer's head.

"Oh no, not my hat again…" The blond man sighed as the hat sailed down. He looked fine otherwise, only a couple of minor scratches and some tears in his clothes. The same went for the boy in his arms, his clothes was more tattered than before and a few new scratches at the arm and lower part of the face. He created a red beam with a slash of his sword and killed the noisy opponent, but at the same time two other voices rang out, "Souten ni zase, Hyourinmaru!" and "Unaru, Haineko!. An ice dragon crashed into one arrancar, trapping it only to break apart into small fine ice crystals, breaking the arrancar in the process. A greyish cloud of ash slashed up the other one, making it into a bloody pulp and then letting the body fall to the ground… both enemies dead in seconds.

"Who is that?" The young captain demanded to know, glaring at the boy in Urahara's arm. Matsumoto on the other hand, only looked on with a childish curiosity.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"What's the matter? Can't land a good hit?" Sorx mocked as a dodged yet another deadly swing. "Face it. You're too exhausted to fight me. It doesn't matter if you know your opponent's weak spot if you can't hit it." Ichigo had found said spot by only looking at the Espada's new form. He looked exactly like an armadillo… or a hedgehog, and they don't have any protection on their belly or chest.

"Then maybe he just needs a good distraction, ne?" A familiar voice said and something long and sharp hit the Espada's back, making the target losing his concentration… his stance faltered and he was wide open. Ichigo plunged Zangetsu into Sorx's chest, but didn't go without further injuries. Sorx knew he couldn't block or dodge and therefore rose on clawed hand, piercing the Shinigami's soft flesh, hoping the wounds would be fatal and bring him to the grave.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Oh? Who this is? This, dear Hitsugaya-taichou is Zenro Hjouru… or maybe it's Hjouru Zenro now? Anyway, he was recently discovered as an arrancar." The former captain said cheerily, with Benihime back in her unreleased state. He then placed Hjouru carefully on the ground and put his green coat under the boy's head as a pillow. Then he started to tend the injuries on the small boy; who had gotten a raging fever.

I didn't take long before Ichigo and Ichimaru joined them. However, Ichigo had to lean on Gin's shoulder to be able to walk, but hey, exhaustion and blood loos tends to do that to you. "Sorry if we took too long Hitsugaya-taichou, but Ichi-chan here needed some medical attention. We should let Inoue-san have a look at him- oh?" Here two pale eyebrows rose and his lips formed into a sincere smile. "My my, isn't it little Hjouru. I haven't seen you for a while and definitely not in such bad condition." Everyone just stared dumb-founded at him, well, Hitsugaya didn't, he just looked really annoyed and irritated.

"You know this Arrancar, Ichimaru?" The young captain growled while pinching his nose bridge, eyes closed in suppressed irritation.

"But why of course. Full of life that kid and quite friendly too, he's nothing like the other Arrancars. I wondered where he took of and left his friend behind… but now when I see him I guess Aizen was behind his disappearance. You see, he openly showed his dislike to his so called 'creator' and didn't follow his given orders, I told him to be careful but…" He gave up a deep sigh and the rest of the words were left unsaid, but they weren't needed, it was obvious what he meant. "I know where he is now at least!" He finished cheerfully. Ichigo just stared up at him, wondered if this guy really was sane.

Their "happy moment" was interrupted when the others arrived. You could say it was quite the stare when they saw Hjouru laying there in full arrancar attire. Only Uryuu and Yoruichi had a knowing look in their eyes, while the others were just dumb-founded.

Renji eyed the unconscious kid wary, not trusting this development at all. Orihime hurried towards her injured friends and Ichigo shifted from a sitting position to a laying one when she activated her Souten Kisshun. A golden cupola surrounded him and Hjouru and their injuries slowly but surely disappeared. Unfortunately, she couldn't heal them completely, she had used way too much reiatsu already, but she managed to stabilize them further and Hjouru's shoulder injury was shallower now.

* * *

**Okay, I feel I have to explain Hjouru's behaviour here. First; he doesn't know his own strenght and second; he tends to be rude to people doesn't like.**

**I'll try to have the fifth chapter ready for the next week, I'm so freaking slow in writing, but hopefuly that will change. Next chapter will be called "Let the truth sink in", see you then! ^^**


	5. Let the Truth Sink In

**A/N: Another chapter out and it become longer than I thought, dubble lenght acctualy, so around 6000 instead of the usual 3000. ^^' I hope you'll enjoy this one, I just hope this one's not boring. I've noticed that I have the habit of adding humore here and there, so hope you don't mind. I'm glad that you're reading this fic Substitute Deathberry :) , you're the only one who has left reviews so far, but you can't denie I didn't leve a few clues on what Hjouru really was.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach just my OOC's, speaking of OOC's I'm trying to keep the original Bleach characters as Kubo Tite made them.**

* * *

**- Chapter V: Let the truth sink in -**

Ichigo slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with the blurry outline of a small room. By the smell and sounds, he guessed he was at the Urahara Shoten. Next to him was an unmade spare bed. He heard the faint noise of foot steps before the door opened and revealed his injured friend, Hjouru. Hjouru's whole chest was covered in bandage, hiding the hollow hole from view. He was also pale as a sheet and looked really tired. Since he was so pale, the reddish markings on his right cheek stood out like a thumb and he could also see some of them on his right arm and neck. Now when they weren't in the heat of battle, Ichigo could take a closer look at the mask fragment on his friend's left cheek. It was a small piece, but still very noticeable because of the row with small sharp teeth. And in his hand (the other one is heavily bandaged and in a sling) he was holding a… bowl with hot steaming soup…

Red eyes met brown. The former's mouth first formed into a 'o' shape then into a happy toothy smile. "Oh! You're finally awake Ichi! I'm glad. You know, I was really worried about you, you've been out like a candle since yesterday and now it's noon and-" a growl from a stomach interrupted him in the speech and the guilty berry blushed like a mad-man. "Want some soup? I've heard it's delicious." Emphasising it by holding up his own bowl.

"Sure, sounds really good to me."

"Oki! You can take my bowl," he pushed his untouched bowl into his friend's unexpected hands, "and I'll go get a new one. See ya soon!" and he walked out of the room, leaving a startled berry behind.

The boy returned shortly with another bowl and they ate in silence. After they had finished, Ichigo couldn't help but to ask what had been gnawing on his mind since he woke up. "Ne, Hjouru, how much do you remember from yesterday?"

Said boy stiffened and looked at him with frightened and sad eyes. "You're wondering what I recall of the battle, right? To be honest, I'm still somewhat in denial, but... me, being one of them, really explains a lot..." The room went silent once again, till Hjouru decided to break it with a question that he feared the answer on. "Ichi, I gotta know... are you guys gonna kill me now?" Teary red eyes met shocked chocolate brown.

"Why would we do that? You're our friend, remember? And if it's about Toushirou, then don't worry. He's just not used to be so close to an Arrancar that ain't trying to kill him; he's just thinks about his team's safety. And I promise you, that I won't let anything bad happen to you." With that said, Hjouru started to cry and hugged Ichigo tightly, soaking his friend's bandaged chest in salty tears and snot. Oh he _so_ needed to change those soon.

After Hjouru had let go, Ichigo remembered another thing that had been gnawing at his mind. "What about dad? He's used to me being gone for days, but not you. He's probably worried."

"Didn't I tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Stupid me!" He knocked his head with his small fist. "I forgot to tell you that Urahara-san already spoke to Isshin-san about what happened, and then Isshin-san gave Yuzu and Karin a cover-story about you teaching me how to use a bicycle." He said all this in what appeared to be in a single breath and greedily took a deep one when he finished speaking.

**XXX XXX XXX**

After they had finished their lunch, Urahara assembled everyone who participated in the battles to sit around the table to discus some important matters, mainly about Hjouru and how to solve this.

This felt really awkward to Hjouru, mainly because that nearly everyone in the entire room was about to _ogle_ their eyes out by staring at his new face features. That was _really_ annoying.

"So Hjouru, since you're in your soul form you're going to need a gigai to be visible to normal humans. Any questions?" Urahara asked seriously, his trusty fan in hand as usually.

Hjouru felt really confused and couldn't help but to think, _'I swear this guy can go from an annoying, perverted, idiotic shop-owner to a serious, super smart genius in what? 1 second flat?' _"Yeah, what's a gig-thing for something?" He asked curiously, _'What is a gigai? Some kind of candy? But how can a candy make me visible to humans? Scratch that, we _are_ after all talking about Urahara here.'_ And while he pondered about that, Urahara tried to come up with an answer for how the kid could be visible if he hadn't heard of or been in a gigai before. Fan in front of his face, hiding it from view.

When Urahara had collected his thoughts it was time to interrogate the kid to see what he did know and didn't know. "So you have never heard of gigais or been inhabiting a so called faux-body before?" A negative shake on the head was the reply he got. "Okay then, do you have any ideas on how you could be visible to humans since you didn't inhabit a gigai?" This time he got the beginning of a shrug, but the kid stopped when the wound started to hurt like hell and instead said "No idea."

Urahara suddenly snapped his fan together and pointed it at Hjouru. "Then I guess we have no other choice, but to force your body to remember what and how you did what you did." Hjouru had an ominous feeling about what the crazy Shop-keeper said. Ohboy, he had no idea how right he was.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Hours later. 6.50 pm.

"I swear! That guy's crazy! Did he call that _going easy_? I thought I would _die_ more than once!" This was one of the many rants Hjouru shared with Ichigo and Rukia on their way back home. But that's no surprise when you think of Urahara's training method and when he decided to test the kid's strength in the same go… but it was successful nothing less. It turned out that Hjouru could make himself visible to normal human beings by coating his body and clothes in a dust looking material, which he supposedly created from no where. And he also learned how to fight… well… at least somewhat.

They succeeded in reaching the house and walk inside before 7 pm, _thank God_ in Hjouru's opinion, he did _not_ want a flying Isshin in his face _again_ thank you very much. "Hello, we're home." Ichigo calls when they stepped over the door sill and removed their shoes. Yuzu was fast in greeting them welcome back. "Welcome home Onii-chan, Hjo-chan, Rukia-nee. How was the bike trip?" She hugged each of them, but when it was Hjouru's turn, he froze and she felt when he winched in pain. She released him quickly and saw a dark growing spot on the T-shirt at his right shoulder. "D-dad!" she called urgently and said father came rushing down the stairs.

"What's the… matter." He finished lamely when he spotted 'his adoptive son's' injured shoulder. "Oh, you're coming with me Hjouru so I can have a look at that."

'_Sigh, Kisuke said it was bad, but it's worse than I thought. It seems like they couldn't heal it properly even with kidou… Maybe the Arrancar who caused this left some of its reiatsu in the wound and that's why they can't heal it completely until it's vanished.'_ His thoughts were interrupted by the slightly shy voice of Hjouru.

"Umm, Isshin-san, could you please say something, you're making me nervous when you're this quiet." He fiddled a little with the sheets on the medical bed he was sitting on, clearly nervous.

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." He started to clean of the blood with disinfection and stitched the wound together, earning winches and grimaces of pain from his patient during the whole process. "I just went through some of the information I got from Kisuke and what I could find from your wound." He started to wrap the cleaned shoulder tightly with fresh bandage. "It appears as if your injury has to heal on it's own until the offending reiatsu is gone from the wound, which I unfortunately can't tell when exactly. There, all done!" He finished with a goofy smile. "Let's go down for some dinner."

It was an eventful dinner; Yuzu asked all kinds of questions, like where they went and what they saw. Hjouru answered as good as he could with the help of Ichigo and Rukia. Yuzu had made a delicious dinner as always, but Hjouru had trouble eating… he couldn't eat with chopsticks in his left hand. After 10 minutes he gave up and asked for a fork, Ichigo didn't let this pass by unnoticed. "So the mighty Arrancar is ambidextrous when it comes to wielding swords but have to ask for a fork when the right is out of commission." This of course was said so quiet that only Rukia and Hjouru heard. "Hehe, it isn't that easy _carrot_, it isn't the same grip on swords as on chopsticks, besides I bet you can't do it ether." With that Hjouru gave them a small mischievous smile, showing he wasn't offended in any way and that he didn't mean anything bad with the words.

When everyone had finished their dinner and cleaned the table, Hjouru couldn't hold back the urge to be alone anymore. "Isshin-san, I'll go for a walk if that's okay?" Isshin being perspective as always knew why 'his second son' wanted a walk. "Sure, but be back before it becomes too dark, okay son?" Hjouru gives him a sweet smile and then walks out through the door. Ichigo couldn't help but to look worriedly at his friend's back, he had such an uneasy feeling about letting the boy go out alone and it only grew worse after each passing minute.

"Should one of us follow him and make sure nothing happens?" He asks Rukia worriedly. She just shakes her head in negative.

"Let him be for now. It's a lot he needs to take in and he can protect himself against the hollows."

"If you say so…" _'But even with that said, I can't shake this foreboding feeling off… something bad is going to happen, but when?' __**'Soon King, and that kid is going to be involved with it all, I'm sure.'**_ See, even his own hollow agreed with him about the bad feeling, but he still didn't go after the teen. How he would come to regret that decision dearly…

**XXX XXX XXX**

His thoughts wandered as they pleased and his feet carried him once again to the Yumizawa children Park, the same place he saw how a konsou worked and the very same place his chest was pierced through. Right now it was a peaceful sight, the only light source was the moon and the playground bathed in the pale light. It was calming and he could sort his thoughts and emotions out. He gave up a deep sigh and sunk down on the same bench as when he helped the ghost boy find his sister and looked up at the big clear moon.

"_Why are you looking at the moon like that, sighing now and then?" A now familiar girl voice asked him from behind. An answer rang out shortly after that with his own voice, "I'm looking because I think it's beautiful and peaceful. And for the sighing…" He turned around and faced the girl, her appearance was still blurry and unclear, but he could now tell that she was wearing the white uniform of an Arrancar. "I just keep thinking it must be lonely to be up there all alone. In the World of the Living, the moon has the sun as a companion." It came a short pause after that and it appeared as if the girl was pondering about what he had said, then he continued. "I often go to the living world just to have a glimpse of the sunrise and sunset. It's so beautiful, all those colours!" The sweet smile she gave him was visible even through the blur, she was cute even if you couldn't see her properly, she has a small frame, it makes her look vulnerable, but you can tell see's not by looking her in the eyes and her body posture. "Yes, I remember the colours. You brought me with you __occasions and I'm glad you did, Hjouru."_

'_That was interesting, it's her voice I've been hearing now and then, but I still can't remember her name.'_ Hjouru felt more relaxed than he had in days, he even got back small pieces of his old memory. It isn't much but it _is_ part of who he was, _is_, and he's grateful. He remained on the bench for quite a while, and then he eventually decided to head back home. He had probably been out more than a couple of hours already and Isshin was probably worried now.

A garganta opened up above the town and revealed two white clad figures, who stepped out of the black hole after they hid their reiatsu till it was non-existing. Soul Society's radar couldn't detect them. They had an important mission to do. The search went quick and they struck before the victim could react…

**XXX XXX XXX**

Hours had past since Hjouru went out for his walk… and he wasn't back yet. Isshin felt very worried now, what if something had happened? What if… no, that wasn't possible, right? He decided to wake his son up and ask for advice, no matter how unbelievably that sounds, but it's necessary, Ichigo knows Hjouru better than anyone. He knocked softly on the door, went in and called his son's name. "Ichigo." No response. "Ichigo!" This time he got a grunt as a response, but you couldn't hear what he said.

Ichigo slowly sat up in the bed, still very sleep drunken and looked at the alarm-clock. It read 2 am. "You gotta be kidding me Old-man. It's in the middle of the night and I got school tomorrow!"

"Ichigo, Hjouru isn't back yet." This caught Ichigo's attention and now saw how worried his father really was. And when the meaning behind the words finally sunk in, he understood the grave of the situation; the worry he felt when Hjouru left the house, the ominous feeling he had, his father even used the door, yes the _door_! It all made sense now why he had wanted to go after and keep an eye out for his new friend, deep down it seemed like he knew something like this would happen. His inside went cold, he could've prevented it from happening if he had gone with his gut feeling… but nooo, he had to lose his stubbornness at that moment. _**'King! What's happening? Why are you so upset so suddenly? You're whipping up a **_**storm**_** in here…'**_ This was followed with a spluttering sound._** 'AND IT'S RAINING LIKE NO TOMORROW!' **_Then more spluttering noises came from his mindscape. _'I promised him… I promised I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him!' __**'O-oi! It's not your fault ,King.'**_

"I should've gone after him…" He said quietly, but Isshin reacted to it immediately, his son was frozen to the spot and blamed himself!

"M-maybe he just fell asleep somewhere, like I did before I woke you up." This had little effect on his son, sure he was moving now, but he still had that guilty look in his eyes. "Son, this isn't your fault. If Hjouru now was kidnapped, whoever did it must've made sure that neither you nor Rukia together could've beaten them that easily." This however worked better, but the guilt was still there, just not that strong anymore.

Together they searched the whole night; they eventually had to give up to catch one hour of sleep before they had to get up again. They found nothing, no evidence of where he went to think and none on where he could've disappeared…

**XXX XXX XXX**

Hjouru opened his eyes slowly, but closed them quickly and groaned when his head throbbed painfully. When the pain settled a bit, he opened his eyes again and saw that he was currently laying on a white bed, in a small white room, with no windows and seemingly no door ether, oh! Wait, there it is. _'What's up with all this white? You can't even tell the door from the wall!'_ The room itself was foreign to his mind, but the structure itself was familiar. "Have I been here before?" he asked aloud.

"Indeed you have, Hjouru Zenro." A new voice rang out from the door opening. The voice was familiar and so was the man it belonged to, and both set terror in Hjouru's body and mind. This was a man not to take lightly and his instincts screamed at him to get away from this danger.

"Do I know you? You seem familiar." He managed to ask calmly, a big feat since he disliked the man to the very core of his soul by an unknown reason.

"Yes you do, Hjouru. My name is Aizen Sousuke…" Hjouru became very pale and his face reflected deep shock. This was the man his friends had told him about. How he betrayed his fellow kin, how he selfishly had planed to sacrifice Karakura. "Does it ring any bells if I say that I'm your creator?" The man, now known as Aizen asked with was supposed to be a friendly smile. Many would've been fooled by it, but Hjouru wasn't. Aizen wanted something from him and whatever it was; he wouldn't give it to him willingly.

_A white desert. A morphed voice. __**"We don't want to, now leave us alone. Come Raya, let's go." **__Black, so much black. Every where. Surrounded. A feminine scream. Pain…_

Hjouru choose not to answer that question, instead he asked "Where am I?" Sure, the place was familiar, but he couldn't place any name on it or its location. The man looked at him with a worried face, like the answer would be obvious.

"What do you mean? This is Las Noches in Hueco Mundo. What did the Shinigamis do to you, which would make you forget your true home? Last time I saw you, was over four months ago. I've been very worried about you, especially when you didn't return from your mission." _'This might be easier than I thought. When someone has lost their memories they believe nearly anything as long as it sounds believable. Friendly words and a concerned face works like magic, maybe I don't even need to get forceful.'_

"A mission? What kind of mission?" _'Four months… Ichi mentioned something that ended four months ago, what was it? What did he say? That's right! A war. A war between hollows and Shinigamis! And worried? My ass, not with what my friends told me about you!'_

"I sent you out to search for more soldiers in Hueco Mundo's desert, but when you didn't return, I assumed the worst." A soft knock interrupted their conversation; Hjouru didn't mind at all, that way he didn't have to be feeded with anymore lies. "Enter, Ulquiorra." The door opened and in stepped a stoic man with black hair and very pale skin. His eyes is what catches your attention the most, they're emerald green and the Arrancar marks beneath his eyes made it look like he was crying.

"You wanted me to come here when the boy woke up, Aizen-sama." The Arrancar labelled Ulquiorra gave a bow and straightened again afterwards.

"Show Hjouru here around in Las Noches, the Shinigamis did something to him and now he's unable to remember." Then Aizen left, leaving said boy and the stoic man alone in the room.

'_This guy actually feels okay.'_ Hjouru though, his gloomy mood lifted greatly. "So your name's Ulquiorra. Were we friends?" This innocent question actually bothered Ulquiorra. Acquaintances? Sure. But friends? The boy knew when not to talk or bother him. He often hanged after him like a tail and surprisingly he didn't mind the company… "I guess you could say that." Was the simple response, but the teen beamed with joy.

"We'll start with the training room, don't get lost." Then he went out through the door closely followed by Hjouru.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Breakfast at the Kurosaki household was very gloom this morning. No one spoke as they ate their food silently; the only thing not belonging to the sound of eating was the sobs that escaped Yuzu's lips now and then. Karin was also sad, but she didn't cry, instead she kept glancing towards Hjouru's empty seat. Isshin tried his beast to make his little girls laugh, but failed miserably. It was then Ichigo realised how they felt,_ 'If they're this sad and worried when someone they've only known for such a short time is missing, how much more do they worry when I'm gone for days?'_ He was brought back to reality when his father demanded everyone's attention.

"Okay everyone! Let's search for him after school's over for the day! We'll start from here and comb trough whole Karakura if necessary!" Maybe not the most inspiration giving speech, but it would have to do. Isshin knew that his son would go searching right away, but he wanted the girls in the school in case they _did_ find him, and if he wasn't completely himself.

With that said, breakfast eaten, table cleaned and girls of to school. Father and son started to search for the lost boy.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"And this is the Dinning hall." Ulquiorra finished with a stoic face when they reached two huge doors. He had shown the boy around in Las Noches the whole day, or maybe night? And they were far from done yet, approximately ¾ left to show, but this was the stop for the day. Without another word, Ulquiorra pushed the door open with ease and walked inside.

"Ne, Ulquiorra, I'll never be able to remember all this –uff!" Hjouru was unable to finish the sentence before he was tackled to the floor by someone with brown hair and was trying to… _hug_ him? "Ahhh! Ulquiorra! Help me! She's trying to eat me!" Ulquiorra's lips actually twitched upwards a little before he cowered it up with an annoyed stare. The girl let go of her victim and started to giggle, thinking it was a joke.

"I'm glad you haven't changed much since I last saw you Hjouru. I've missed you and you always seems to know how to lighten the mood, don't you?" Before he could respond she hugged him again, it actually felt cozy, weird. "I've missed you so." Is… is she crying? It was no mistaking it, the girl was crying. "I thought you were dead. I thought I was imagine things when I felt your reiatsu around in the halls. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you enter with Ulquiorra."

Hjouru looked for help at his Guide, but he only received a blank face devoided of any emotions, lot of help that was. "I… I'm so sorry. Were… were we close? I-I don't remember anything, but I know I've seen you before…" He tried to defend himself in why he couldn't remember her name, this was after all the girl he has seen in those, visions? Memories? Flash backs?

"Wh… wha…" Her eyes were big as saucers, she couldn't believe what he said, her long time friend, stripped of his memories. This gotta be a joke, right? She placed her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes, her owns shone with disbelief. "P-please… please tell me this is a joke…" She stammered and the grip on his shoulders tightened, it started to throb in pain and he could feel the wound starting to open up. He didn't let the pain show on his face though.

"I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name." Her grip tightened and thick tears ran down her cheeks, she was shaking like a leaf and her hands accidently slipped a little. Her left hand's fingers accidently dug themselves into Hjouru's injury then. The blood started to flow, drenching her hand and his clothes. Hjouru couldn't bit back a scream of pain, but when it went past his lips it sounded more like the howl of a hollow. A grim reminder of what he was and what he is now, his own scream actually frightened him.

"Hjouru! I'm sorry! I-I didn't know you were injured! Oh God, this is terrible…" The rest of the words were lost to Hjouru when he fell unconscious from the blood loos.

**XXX XXX XXX**

During the same day in a large room filled with containers and tubes, each filled with colourful liquids and some with what looks like body parts. The lab room is bathing in darkness, except from the eerie light coming from the glowing containers and what appears to be a work desk. Blue sparks appears now and then from somewhere in front of the figure working at the desk. All together, it looks like one of those horror movies. Foot steps can suddenly be heard and a tall figure wearing white approaches the working person. "How are things proceeding, Mira?" Aizen asked the woman working at the desk.

"Everything is proceeding like planed for now, Aizen-sama. It will be finished this evening if nothing comes up." The woman called Mira replays confidently. After Szayel Aporro Grantz, the former scientist, was killed during the winter war, a replacement needed to be fine and Mira Fayer filled that need perfectly. She had been studying science and medicine ever since she became an Arrancar, plus, she had been a helper of Szayel's. She had yet black hair and just as black eyes, devoided of any warmth. "But you might want to try and persuade him before trying _this_, it can after all turn the body into a mess. Paralysis is a likely possibility too and you don't want that do you."

"No, that would be inconvenient." He cast one look one the project before he left Mira to do her work, which she gladly returned to with a sinister smile on her face.

**XXX XXX XXX**

Hjouru slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted with the usual white of Las Noches. _'Seriously, this whole place could need a makeover; I'm getting tired of all this white.'_ He looked down on his bandaged chest, only the upper part covered and thus leaving his hollow hole visible. At once a childish curiosity came over him; he had never actually gotten a good look at his own hole before and started to finger around the edge. To his surprise, it tickled. Then he tried to touch the inside walls, it didn't hurt, but it felt weird and uncomfortable so he stopped.

The girl from before was asleep in a chair next to the bed. It made him wonder what time it was, one thing he had learned during his short stay, was that it was impossible to tell the time. It was always dark outside ,-or light if you looked at the grounds in the middle of Las Noches' dome-, so it could be day or night and he would never know. He looked at her with sad eyes, the look of hurt in her eyes hunted him and he whispered "Sorry." And his fingers accidently brushed against her's making her stir in her sleep and wake up.

She mumbled something he couldn't make out and then she opened her eyes. "Huh… Hjouru?" She rubbed her eyes from the sleep and then got a clear look at his face. Her face shined with happiness and happy tears rolled down her cheeks and she hugged him softly. "Thank God, I thought I was dreaming. But you're really here, you're back." Hjouru felt very awkward, a girl he didn't know the name on was hugging him and crying on him. What felt like minutes, but was probably just a few seconds, he hugged her back.

When they finally parted and she calmed down, they sat in an uncomfortable silence. Hjouru was just about to break the heavy silence, but the girl beat him to it. "Is it really true that you can't remember anything?" She whispered, fearing the answer but already knowing the answer deep down. She was sitting with her knees pulled up beneath her shin and her arms wrapped around them. Hjouru looked down on his lap, his bangs covering his eyes and gave a small nod.

"O-okay then, I'm Raya Kita. Could you tell me what you do remember, Hjouru?"

"Well, I'm not completely sure about what's real and what's dreams, but since you say you're my best friend, I thought maybe you'll know right?" He looked at Raya with a friendly face and then made himself comfortable on the bed. "At first I could only remember my name, then I started to have this memory flashes. Mostly about you talking to me and later about a crazy woman chasing someone… I think it's me she's chasing with a knife, she keeps calling me child." He chuckled slightly, "You have no idea how badly I reacted to that word when my new friends called me that. I don't know why, but each time I hear that word _that_ woman's voice rings so clearly in my head and my body hurts so much I think I will go crazy, which I did in a sense." He was referring to the episode in the Shoten, when he lost control of his emotions momentarily.

Raya decided to not ask for an explanation. "I remember how you could be when that word was used. Nnoitra called you that more than once." She saw his wondering face, "Nnoitra Jiruga was the Quinto Espada, somehow he survived the Winter war. He's still an Espada, but has received a new number, Séptima, which means that there are seven others that are stronger than him now, before was it only five. The numbers goes from cero to nine, cero being the strongest of them all." She said with a serious tone and face. "You two didn't part on the best terms, so please try and avoid him. He has long black hair and wears a white eye-patch over his left eye. He also has a very big weapon, so you can mistaken him."

Hjouru could see that she was close to tears again and quickly promised. "O-okay! Don't worry, I'll keep my eyes open!" it was a short pause before he had gathered his thoughts and formed it into a question. "Ne Raya, what will happen now?"

She looked at him with a questioning glance. "What do you mean, Hjouru?"

"What I mean is, I don't trust Aizen. I get a bad feeling around him all the time and I'm an Arrancar and you're an Arrancar, I have friends in the real world and I'm friends with Shinigamis that is supposed to be our deadly enemies…" His frantic speech stopped when he put his face in his hands and sighed. "I'm so confused, I don't know what to do."

"Then do what you think is right." She said and grabbed his hands in a comforting manner. "You don't have to worry about me, I promised you that I would go with you anywhere and I'm going to keep it. You didn't like this place when we first got here ether, you were brought here against-" Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the door and Aizen requesting Raya's absence. She left the room, but cast Hjouru one worried glance before stepped over the door sill and disappeared from view.

It was awkward to say the least, he was stuck in a room with a person that gave him the creeps. It was Aizen that broke the silence "I've come here to ask you where your loyalty lies, with your brethren or the ones that caused your memory loss?"

'_What's he after?'_ "I just wanna go home."

"You _are _home, Hjouru. Hueco Mundo has been your home for many years." Aizen had already foresaw this stubborn behaviour, but you can always try and persuade someone.

Hjouru glared at the man in front of him _'Surely he can't be that stupid can he?'_ "You know which home I mean Aizen. I refuse to fight my friends, so just let me go back." He had pulled up his knees to sit more comfortable.

"I would appreciate if you refer to me as Aizen-sama. I am after all the one who gave you your heart back, your creator in another term." Aizen still had that 'friendly' smile on his face. Hjouru decide to be stubborn and refused to give Aizen the satisfaction.

Hjouru gave him a neutral look before answering his demand. "I don't think so. Isshin always says that children need to learn how to be independent when they become older, by calling you 'sama' it would indicate that I don't know how to think for my self, plus you haven't earned that kind of respect from me." If Aizen was enraged by this, his face didn't show it nor did his body language.

"I see." Was all he said. It was a short pause before he spoke again. "Come, we need to prepare for your departure to the living world." He turned around and started to walk towards the door, when Hjouru finally found his voice again. "W-what?" he stuttered out with wide eyes, he didn't hear right did he?

"You wanted to go _home_, didn't you? And don't worry about your friend; you can go get her after we've finished the preparations." Hjouru could barely believe what Aizen just had said, it was too good to be true, but you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. That was his last thoughts before he left the room with Aizen…

**XXX XXX XXX**

School was finally over for Karin and Yuzu, their last class had been cancelled since the teacher for the subject had fallen ill. So the only thing they could do was to go home and prepare to continue the search for Hjouru. Though, they had to wait for their brother to come home before they started, Isshin had made it clear that his daughters weren't allowed to search on their own. Their old-man was surprisingly serious about that part, so no reason to go against him on that. So to make the time fly, Yuzu decided to search for "Bostov" a.k.a Kon. That doll always rounded up in Ichigo's room somehow and she couldn't figure out why. Karin on the other hand decided to do some research on their missing friend; she just couldn't accept that he had no family out there searching for him.

She logged on onto the computer and typed in "Zenro Hjouru" in the search field. She got several matches, but none were of interest. She was about write another search word when one article caught her eyes. It was about a massacre of a family, even though it had no real connection to Hjouru, she felt curious about it and opened the file. It turned out to be from a news paper, it read:

"_**Massacre near Brooks"**_

_Yesterday evening was the bodies of the Zenro family found in and near their house. The police was first informed of their children's absence from school and that no one had been able to contact the family. The Police did nothing and the family's closest friends decided to go and see what was going on, they returned shortly yelling in panic about torn up bodies._

_The Police are still unsure whether it was an animal attack or a brutal murderer, but the strangest thing was that the bodies had been left alone from all animal life in two days.- "It was like they were afraid, I swear there were no animals closer than 3 miles (around 5 kilometres). Not even the birds were present when we collected the bodies. Spooky to say the least!" One of the officers kindly answered our question._

_The villagers see this as a terrible tragedy, the Zenro family was liked and no one can understand why someone wanted them dead. Most of them have accepted it as an animal attack, but some still believe it's a case of murder. Liza and her youngest son, Hjouru, were found near the river-bank, while Liza's husband Lee, appears to have been chased into the woods and killed there. Their oldest children, Kiri and Will, were found close together on the backyard. Their youngest, Riku, was found inside the house.- "Of all of them, Hjouru's body was in the worst state. God, I couldn't even recognise him… he was like a bloody mess!" One of the villagers confessed in tears._

Karin was in shock, "How could this be, he's here and alive… maybe he never did die, his body was un-recognisable, but blood test should've showed if it was him or not…" It was then she saw the date on the news paper, today was May the twentieth 2010, the paper's date was; August the seventh1889. _'Even if he did survive the massacre, he should be dead anyway. This was over hundred years ago!'_ Her eyes were wide with shock, she had thought this article had nothing to do with what she was searching for, but it seems like it was a jackpot, although a bad one.

**XXX XXX XXX**

The last class for the day was finally over. Ichigo and Rukia were on the way back to the clinic, so that they could begin searching again… And Yuzu threatening to not make any food if they weren't allowed to come too; had nothing to do with it, nothing at all. So here they were, opening the front door only to be tackled to the ground by two small girls. Well, only Ichigo got tackled, Rukia had been smart enough to stand a bit out of the way. Ichigo released a heavy sigh, "Alright alright, we'll go as soon as you get off of me."

Karin and Yuzu were happy to oblige and literally dragged both Rukia and Ichigo outside, eager to begin the search again. Yesterday they had found nothing, but they were hoping for a breakthrough today. Who knows, maybe luck was on their side today!

Several hours later they had still not found anything, that was until several heavy Arrancar reiatsus could be felt. Ichigo and Rukia felt it immediately, "Karin! Yuzu! Hurry back to the house, now!" He yelled, taking the both girls with surprise. "W-what's going on Ichi-nii?" Karin asked, their brother had never shouted at them like that before and never sounded so worried either. "No time to explain, now hurry." He urged them on.

"W-what about you, Onii-chan?" Yuzu asked; worry clear in her voice and in her frightened eyes.

"I'll be fine. Now go." The both girls looked at their big brother one more time before they ran away from the site and towards their home. He then dug his hand into his pocket and took out a small green marble looking thing and swallowed it. "Kon, take care of my body and hide! And don't run after any girls!" He added, when Kon got a dreamy look on his face, a blush was present as well. "Fine, you party-pooper!" Kon said bitterly, _'I'm never allowed to have any fun! Ichigo always ruins it!'_ He thought as he too ran away from the place, tears streaming down the face.

The Arrancar reiatsu was heavy in the air, but they hadn't appeared yet. Then a tear in the sky appeared and at the same time the others arrived, ready to protect their friends and home town. The maw of the garganta opened wide and let the enemies stream out, but something wasn't right… it only took them seconds to release what was weird. "Why are there so few?" Orihime asked, never taking her eyes of the enemy. It was Ishida that answered her question, "The ones from the last battle had only been Gillian to low Adjucha, except from the Espada who had been one of the higher ones. These are probably much stronger, so you can assume they're of the middle calibre."

Ishida had been right, the enemies were much tougher than the last ones, it had been five-on-one back then, now it was two-on-one. But Ichigo was only up against one of the bastards. It wasn't a funny thought to fight a girl, but what kind of choice did he have? She had made it _very_ clear that _she_ was his opponent, no one else. Her zanpaktou was a little bit different; it was a little longer and wider than a normal katana, probably heavier too, but she was still very agile with it. She even managed to block each of his swings in shikai, but when Ichigo shifted to bankai mode instead, it got harder for her and she received gash after gash.

Her body language told him that she was ready to release her sword, but by some reason she tensed up almost immediately. When she got back her bearings, she didn't look happy, more like pissed off. "Don't you dare die until we meet again! You hear me! Don't you dare! And you'd do best in remembering my name! Emilia Wyder!" She then opened a small garganta and disappeared instantly.

Ichigo just stood there in mid air confused. "What the hell was up with her?" Suddenly a feeling of dread crept over him and a drowning feeling in the chest. He started to feel cold and he could only think one thing; _'No way…'_ A malicious voice whispered in his right ear "Hello _Ichi_…" then a sharp pain in his abdomen and when he look down, he saw the blade of a sword sticking straight through him. "Looking for someone?"

* * *

**What do you think? Good? Bad? let me know, all forms of critic is welcomed. :)**

**Yes I know that Ulqiorra probably died back there, but he's one of my two favorite Arrancars, so I couldn't have him dead. Ther other Arrancar is going to make its appearnce in the next chapter "Change of Heart" and I let Nnoitra live because I needed him in this fic. I don't know when the next chapter will be done, as I've said before I'm a slow writer, so maybe a month if not more, sorry for that. I know how irritating it can be to wait for a fic to update and especially if it takes months between each update.**

**Anyone knowing where I can read the rest of the Bleach manga? Mangafox don't have it and neither do Onemanga anymore because it become licensed. I don't want any spoilers in fanfic I might read, it will destroy all kind of excitement. I've read to chapter 415.**

**Leave a little review and make me happy! :D See you at the next chapter.**


	6. Change of Heart

**A/N: Phew, finally! Sorry for the wait but it's finally done. Found some really good music to lissten to when writing the lower half: -Man OST 3: Gospel or Good News and Lavi's Despair from the same OST disc, I found those two somewhat sad but shooting at the same time. And for all Bleach fans out there, has the new Bleach chapters! or at least had during the weekend haven't checked if their're still there though. ^^;**

**And sorry for possible OOC;ness in this fic, but I don't know how to write Aizen and Ulquiorra**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach only my OOCs.**

**Enjoy! :3**

* * *

- Chapter VI: Change of Heart -

_Her body language told him that she was ready to release her sword, but by some reason she tensed up almost immediately. When she got back her bearings, she didn't look happy, more like pissed off. "Don't you dare die until we meet again! You hear me! Don't you dare! And you'd do best in remembering my name! Emilia Wyder!" She then opened a small garganta and disappeared instantly._

_Ichigo just stood there in mid air confused. "What the hell was up with her?" Suddenly a feeling of dread crept over him and a drowning feeling in the chest. He started to feel cold and he could only think one thing; 'No way…' A malicious voice whispered in his right ear "Hello _Ichi_…" then a sharp pain in his abdomen and when he look down, he saw the blade of a sword going straight through him. "Looking for someone?"_

**xxx**

Ichigo couldn't believe what he saw and felt; he had a bloody sword sticking out trough his guts and the one causing it… was cackling like a maniac behind his back. His mind felt numb and his body was aching in the agony spreading from the wound. He looked down in shock on the sword again, _'I can't believe it's really him. Hjouru would never do something like this.'_ A sickening sound and fiery pain, brought him back to reality. Hjouru was twisting the blade, planning on cutting it trough his side! Ichigo quickly used a shunpo straight forward, ignoring the feeling of steel cutting trough flesh and quickly turned around to look at his friend.

He had no resembles of the old, friendly Hjouru he got to know. This one was cold, evil and malicious. His stomach almost turned when Hjouru put the bloodied sword close to his mouth and started to lick the blood. The sinister red eyes never left his brown ones for one second.

"Not that bad for a Shinigami and I should know, I have had my fare share of them in the past." Hjouru said with a creepy smile on his lips.

Ichigo was shocked beyond belief "You're- you're lying!" he managed to yell, clutching the bleeding wound.

Hjouru's smile grew even wider at Ichigo's misery. "It can't be easy, Ichi, not knowing what's true or not. _But_ I can assure you on this; that wound isn't fatal…" He suddenly disappeared from view with the buss of a sonido and reappeared right behind Ichigo. "It would be _so_ much more fun watching you suffer." This was followed by a cut for Ichigo's back. The cut would've been deeper if he hadn't used a quick shunpo to avoid it. He was breathing heavier now, the cuts and the previous fight was getting to him, that and he really didn't want to hurt Hjouru.

"Why… why are you… doing this?" He asked, having to pause for breathing in the sentence.

Hjouru pretended to think hard on it, resting the still bloody sword on his right shoulder. "Hmm, good question Ichi, why am I doing this?" He pointed the edge of the sword towards Ichigo and grined wickedly. "I'm doing this because I enjoy it! I'm going to terminate all of Aizen-sama's enemies! And I'm starting with YOU!" He then brought out the second zanpakutou and lunged at the teen, this time serious damage was intended.

When he witnessed the scene below him, he couldn't help but to feel nostalgic. Not with his last encounter with the boy, which ended in his own defeat. He remembered clearly how he was pinned beneath the hollowfied boy's foot, who had a powerful blood red cero charging between his horns. What had surprised him after the boy had come back to his senses was that he was willing to cut off his own limbs so that the fight would be fair. This was what ran trough Ulquiorra's mind when he looked down on Ichigo fighting Hjouru from the open maw of the garganta. When would it fit to make their presence known? His hot headed 'companion' made the decision for him, when he rushed out of the garganta and down to the fight below.

They had been at it for several minutes now and Ichigo could see black spots in his eye sight. The blood loss was making it self known. He felt dizzy, weak and just wanted to sleep for a whole day.

"Aw, what's the matter Ichi? Does it hurt somewhere?" Hjouru taunted and actually sounded concerned, but was in fact far from it. The blood thirsty grin gave it away and he managed to score another deep slash on his friend's torso.

'_That son of a bitch!'_ Ichigo screamed inside his mind, placing his hand over the new wound. His hand was immediately drenched in the red sticky substance called blood. _'What did… Aizen… do to him!'_ He noticed that even his thoughts had slowed down from his exhaustion. This. Was. NOT. Good. _**'Switch with me!'**_ Came a voice deep down from his soul. _'No... not this time... Hichigo... If it had been... someone else... I might not have hesitated... but I don't... want to... fight him... like that.'_ _**'Che! Fine! Have it your way then King! But don't come here whining when he kills you!'**_

Right then Hjouru made another lethal lunge, but only managed to give Ichigo two small scratches, if he hadn't been able to avoid the blade swipes, his insides would've been split in two. Hjouru lunged again, but this time Ichigo could muster enough strength to lift Tensa Zangetsu to parry. When the three blades met it made a very high screeching sound, making you wanna hold for your ears in hope to muffle it out.

The next move happened so fast that Ichigo didn't have time to react before it was too late. Before he could comprehend what was happening, the force upon his zanpakutou was decreased and his lower arms felt like they were set on fire. All in all, it was a wonder that he hadn't let go of Zangetsu after that assault. He couldn't even feel his hands now!

Hjouru looked down on his 'handiwork' and grined. "I'm surprised you haven't let go of your sword yet Ichi, 'cuz that has to hurt like hell." His left sword was stuck in his friend's lower arms. To his great amusement, the small chain on Tensa Zangetsu was rattling slightly, Ichigo's arms were shaking from the strain and agony. "My my, let me put you out of your misery, Ichi." With that said a small light started to form in Hjouru's mouth, it looked really weird.

Ichigo looked on his friend in confusion, what was he planning to do? He had reached his limit, he probably couldn't dodge the attack even if he wanted to. His legs felt like jelly and could barely support his own weight. He was drenched in his own blood, his body aching and he was tired beyond words. _'Is that… a Cero?'_ And sure it was, a blood red cero, ready to be fired in any second now. He closed his eyes and waited for the end, but changed his mind quickly; he wanted to look his killer in the eyes, even if the killer didn't really want to kill him.

But when he was about to be obliterated by the cero, it was fired in another direction. Someone had punched Hjouru hard in the face, forcing his head to turn left sharply. The cero had been fired immediately after that. The punch was followed by a very fast kick to the side, sending Hjouru flying into a nearby building. The sword stuck in Ichigo's lower arms followed it's master when he was sent flying, but not without slicing up the arms even more, rendering them useless and dropped what they were holding, Zangetsu. He screamed in pain when the wound was stretched wider and longer.

Ichigo couldn't believe who he was seeing, this person was supposed to be dead. "G… Grimmjow?"

"Yo, Shinigami. You're _my_ prey and not someone else's, if you're gonna die I'll be the one killing you, got that?"

Ichigo just started at the teal haired Arrancar like he was crazy. _'Still wants to kill me eh?'_ He thought annoyed.

**xxx**

Hjouru hadn't landed good, his right sword had managed to pierce his upper left arm and together both swords had managed to torn up his clothing even more than they were before, thus showing more damaged skin beneath. His whole body hurt, but his back was the worst, it felt like it had been split open and the cloth on his back felt drenched, but with what he could only guess. He spitted out a mouth full of blood and glared heatedly at Grimmjow and Ichigo, then he spotted two other persons joining them and growled. _'Why're they here?... Doesn't matter, I must obey Aizen-sama's orders. It's only a plus if traitors are killed in the process.'_ He slowly rose to his feet; he stumbled slightly but regained his footing before he fell. They were going to pay dearly for this, no one betrayed Aizen without paying it with their blood.

**xxx**

"Step down, Kurosaki Ichigo. You're in no form of taking him on right now." An emotionless voice rang out from behind said person, who spun around as fast as his body allowed him to do. "U…Ulquiorra… I thought I killed you." was his shocked answer. _'First Grimmjow and now Ulquiorra. Are… are the other Espadas still alive too?'_ But as soon as this new information settled in, Ichigo grew suspicious. "Why are you here? Did Aizen send you?"

Ulquiorra was about to answer, but was rudely interrupted by the new arrival. He glared coldly at the small girl, who started to stutter and look very nervous. "I-I-I d-did a-as you asked Ulquiorra." She managed to stutter out, bowing deeply and holding a black katana with great care. "Zangetsu!" Ichigo shouted in his mind and voiced the same name out aloud when he identified the sword in the girl's arms.

The girl turned to him in surprise, she had brown long hair and gentle brown eyes and didn't look hostile, but she didn't seem to have any intention in giving Zangetsu back to him either. Not that he would be able to do much with it for that matter if she really did give him back, his hands was regrettably useless! "I take it as it's yours, mister. Don't worry, I'll hold it for you while Ulquiorra and Grimmjow deals with Hjouru." Despite with this said, Ichigo could tell that she was very worried even if she tried to sound calm and controlled. He came to the conclusion that she knew Hjouru, but not how well she did.

Ichigo looked at them again, Grimmjow appeared to be impatient as usual, hands in his pocket and his gace directed at the smoking debris where Hjouru crashed. The brown haired girl fidgeted a little with Zangetsu in her hands, a clear nervous move. She glanced at him before her attention returned to the building. He wondered what her name was. Ulquiorra on the other hand had his attention directed at him, to be honest, it was really creepy. Even though the stare didn't have any killing intent at the moment, it still was scary and frightening.

"You asked before if we were here on Aizen's orders, we're not. We're only here to stop the boy from doing something we will regret for the rest of his life." To say that Ichigo was surprised was an understatement. He didn't take Ulquiorra for the talk active one, or someone who liked to associate with others and he never thought that Ulquiorra would leave out the honorific on Aizen. Then he spoke again, "Raya," The girl gave him her attention by looking directly at him, "keep Ichigo out of the battle." She gave him a small nod and moved to said teen's side. Then Hjouru emerge form the smoke, he looked pissed of and was in a very bad condition. Grimmjow charged at him almost immediately and their swords meet with clangs and screeching sounds, again and again.

Ichigo had lost count on how many minutes Grimmjow and Hjouru had fought, but it was clear which one of them that was going to win. Hjouru looked like a walking corpse, while the teal haired Espada looked like he just came out of a cat fight. They broke apart, catching their breath. Hjouru locked eyes with Ulquiorra and spoke, "Never thought that 'Pet-sama' would go against Aizen-sama's orders!"

"I came across disturbing information." Was the stoic reply he got, it only made Hjouru laugh. "Looks like words are useless..." He looked at his fellow Espada and gave a nod when their eyes met. Grimmjow went of like a rocket and clashed yet again with Hjouru. Ulquiorra watched them closely; his eyes never left Hjouru's small form. _'What is he searching for?'_ Ichigo wondered.

Then he almost jumped in surprise when Ulquiorra disappeared with the buss of a sonido. At the same time Hjouru took on a different fighting position, he had change the grip on the handle so that the blade went along with his arm; the sharp edge was turned away from his flesh. "Rasgarse, Ra-" he stopped in mid sentence when a pale hand landed on his neck and he froze, not sure what to do. "What do you think you're doing, Ulquiorra?" He asked with venom in the voice.

"Ending this." Then he grabbed something on the boy's neck and yanked at it extremely hard. Whatever it was, it shredded the rest of Hjouru's upper clothing, his face showing pure agony, like he's being put trough torture. Then his back exploded with blood and he started to fall.

"HJOURU!" Ichigo and the girl name Raya yelled in choir, even Grimmjow looked a bit stunned at what Ulquiorra did, but didn't say anything.

Ulquiorra caught Hjouru before he could fall too far and despite the pain the boy obvious was in, he smiled up at the pale Espada, blood trickling down the corners of his lips. It took some great effort for him to speak, but managed to force out a few words. "T-Th-a-ank-k... y-yo-ou O-or-rra... t-e-ell I-ich-hi... I'm s-so-orr-ry." It seemed like he was going to say something more, but Ulquiorra stopped him.

"Don't speak, save your energy and tell him that when you wake up instead. I'm not a messenger, boy." He let the fact that Hjouru just called him 'Orra' and not Ulquiorra, slip. He allowed the boy to get away with it just this time. He didn't know why he wanted to give the boy hope of survival when it was so slim; he was practically dying in his arms right now. The only explanation was that Hjouru had managed to crawl beneath his skin. He eyed the blood covered device that Aizen had attached along the boy's spine with hate. Why force someone who doesn't want to? He felt the three came towards him and gave them his attention when the orange haired teen yelled his name.

"Ulquiorra! We need to get him to Inoue!" They were running out of time fast, Hjouru's breathing had become very laboured, he was pale as a ghost and his eyes were distant. While they were using shunpo and sonido, Ichigo eyed the weird spine looking thing attached to Ulquiorra's sash, was it just him or was that thing made of metal? _'Please, don't die on us, Hjouru. It feels like all of this is my fault.'_

**xxx xxx xxx**

It had been a very hectic day for Urahara Kisuke, first hollow attack then emergency healing. Poor Inoue Orihime had worked herself to exhaustion and despite her hard work, it wasn't sure the boy would survive. Tessai had taken the responsibility to heal the others, so Orihime could concentrate on one person, hopefully this was enough, but Hjouru had to heal on his own device now; by an unknown reason no healing technique worked on him right now. He himself had been busy analysing the 'metal spine' Ulquiorra had brought him and to be honest, he hadn't gotten far with it at all. He had only found out that the 'spine' was thin, but strong, flexible, flat and covered with thin tiny needles on the underside. They seemed to be in that position where they would enter the subject's spine with force, attachment and removal could cause the subject permanent or temporary paralysis if unlucky. It's a very cruel device, inflicting sever pain all the time… like torture.

Urahara walked through the door leading to the meting room, where everyone not resting was. He had his head turned down when he walked in, his hat hiding most of his face, especially his upset eyes, which showed what his face didn't. When he finally entered the room, Ichigo was on his feet quickly, swaying a bit before he regained his footing and asked how Hjouru was. Urahara looked at the exhausted teen in front of him, sighing, Ichigo hadn't rested one bit, was it because of guilt and worry? "I'm very sorry to say Ichigo, but I have no idea if he will survive. His injuries are very sever and he stopped responding to all kind of healing techniques, including Orihime-san's." he bowed his head in apology to the wide eyed teen, who didn't look to far away to sink down on his knees in grief. And Raya had her hands to her mouth, tears running down like rivers from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ichigo, Raya."

There were only five people in the room; him self, Ichigo, the small Arrancar girl Raya and the two Espada; Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. Those two were the only ones in the room who pretended not to care, but did so on the inside. It was hard to interact with the small boy without forming some kind of attachment; he was to put it simple, easy to get along with.

"And the _thing_ we brought?" Ulquiorra spoke up.

"I've only covered the basics so far, it seems to a highly advanced controller of some sort… and I'm not talking about a simple body control."

"And?" Ichigo urged on, while Ulquiorra kept quiet this time. Both of them didn't like the sound of what Urahara had told them.

"I would say it controls the body, the mind and the personality… Doing, thinking and saying exactly what the controller wants him to, in this case, what Aizen wants him to." He said gravely, with a hint of great hatred towards the traitorous ex-captain.

"Anything else we should know?" To their surprise, it was Grimmjow who spoke this time. And Urahara was hesitating if he should tell them or not, but decided to do so.

"When the _thing_ was removed from his spine, it could've caused him a paralysis. Normally this should've been permanently, but when Orihime-san's power is involved that might not be the case. We'll have to wait and see when he wakes up, if he wakes up. Don't look at me like that Ichigo-san, his chances isn't looking good and if he was aware of what he was doing, then maybe he simply _don't_ _want _to wake up… The device Aizen planted on Hjouru is a crueler form of torture than what the Mobile Corpse would do to you during on of their questionings. The possibility of awareness and the intense pain inflicted with each movement, with each breath and with each heartbeat… would make no one want to wake up again, especially if you killed a comrade during this rampage."

"But he didn't kill anyone!" Ichigo objected.

"And that might help him survive, Kurosaki." Ulquiorra finished for Urahara, who nodded in correction.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra-san. Could you now tell us why you came to the boy's help, with the possibility of facing Aizen Sousuke's wrath if you ever would return? And why you brought two other Arrancars with you."

The pale Espada looked eyes with the shop keeper, held the gaze for what felt like hours, but was in fact just a few seconds, before closing his eyes and nodding in agreement. "I don't know every thing that went on before I over heard them talk, but I assume Aizen tricked him in following him to the lab…"

_Flash back…_

_He walked trough the empty corridor when he heard raised voices, two in fact, one belonging to the small boy Hjouru and the other one belonged to Aizen-sama. He stopped and looked towards the door where the voices came from; it was __Szayel's old lab room, now owned by his apprentice, Mira Fayer. He walked closer to the door and hid his reiatsu, he knew he shouldn't, but for once curiosity got the better of him and he listened on what was being said._

"_I told you before! I don't want to! I refuse to fight my friends!" That was the boy's voice, he sounded and was very likely very angry. Then a shuffle of clothes, a small grunt of pain and a low menacing voice he recognised as Aizen-sama's. "I made you what you are now, you owe me and I want your obedience. Do as I say or I'll have to take drastic measures."_

_It was followed by a strained answer and Ulquiorra could barely hear it, "Screw you…" then a bone chilling shriek and the sound of a body hitting the cold floor. Then he heard _him_. "Any mobility problems?"_

"_Not what I know of, Aizen-sama. We will just have to see for our selves soon." Wasn't that Mira's voice? It was too hard to tell, but he decided it was time to move along unless he wanted Aizen-'sama' to find him._

_End Flash back…_

"You just left him there!" Ichigo shouted at the Espada when he had finished and grabbed the front of his jacket, said Espada just glared coldly at the orange haired child. "What else could I have done, Kurosaki?" he replied and swatted away the hand that had grabbed the collar of his jacket. "I alone is no match for Aizen and when I knew what he ordered Hjouru to do, I collected the ones I knew wouldn't betray me and had enough courage to stand up against Aizen. Unfortunately, time was short and I could only get these two and none of us can go back there right now."

Urahara rose from his spot, "Where are you going Urahara-san?" Ichigo asked curiously. "I'm going to make a phone call to your father and have him pick up you and Hjouru. Since he'll have to heal on his own device from now on, the clinic would be the best place to be at. And you three will have to stay here at the Shoten." It took twenty minutes for Isshin to arrive and ten minutes later they left.

Raya followed them with her eyes till they disappear around the corner. From her position at the front door, she couldn't help but to whisper; "Please get better soon, Hjouru." Then she turned her back to the door and walked inside. Silent tears making their way down her cheeks.

* * *

**Well, what did you guys think? Good? Bad? please leav a review, they make me motivated and gives me insperation kicks, which will make me write more often and chapters should then come out faster.**

**Next chapter shall be called "Death of Hjouru", and while I'm at it; how do you write an M rated fic that don't contain any form of sex or romance? I know it needs to be gory, have scary descriptions, being dark and, well... scary? I might try and make the next chap between T and M and use possible ideas (if I recieve any) in two one shots I have ideas for, one for Bleach and one for -Man.**

**Be safe! :3**


	7. Death of Hjouru

**A/N: Hi all! Sorry for the delay, real life decided to be in the way for me, that and I'm being a bit lazy as always. Special thanks to _gtoman80_ for your review, it made me very happy :D And thank you to everyone who reads my story. :)**

**WARNING: this chapter contains child abuse, gore and other nasty things... this chapter may very well be M rated material, but if it is, do I really have to change the whole fic rating? And don't think bad of me because of this chapter. And if you didn't read this note and gets a shock while reading, don't blame me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, only my OOC's.**

**Enjoy**

* * *

- Chapter VII: Death of Hjouru -

_It's dark… I can't see and I can't feel… There's no pain except from my beating heart… I can remember _everything_ I did… and I feel sick. It's like I was destined to loos my sanity, from the very moment I was born, I was domed…_

_My mother always treated me differently from my three siblings. I still don't know if it was because of my red eyes, you see no one in my family's history have ever had red eyes, so maybe she got scared. Then the fact that I saw and spoke to things she couldn't see or hear probably didn't help me the least, it only freaked her out even more. Then what about my father you might ask, well, while my mother freaked out, he actually didn't seem to mind that much. Once we had a ghost in our house, I asked him what he was staring at, his answer "I might sound mad son, but I think it's something there." He didn't see it clearly, just the blurry outlines, but it was enough to make him realise that it was indeed something there. I told him it was a little girl named Nana and that she had been in our house for the whole week. He was shocked to hear that, but accepted it nothing less._

_While I still remember it clearly, I might as well show you my past. But beware, it isn't pretty… _

_It all started 100 years ago, at the edge of the small village called Brooks…_

**XXX XXX XXX**

It's in the middle of the summer and the air is hot and dry. A soft whimpering cry can be heard from some water barrels next to the cottage wall, the cry is coming from a small boy, no older than 5 years. The reason for the sad whimpering was because of an angry red hand print on the black haired boy's right cheek. It had been a lot of force behind that hit to make it look so swollen, but when he heard someone approaching he willed the tears to stop falling and dried his eyes quickly. A small girl came into view; she looked to be around one year younger than the boy and had a worried expression on her face.

"Hjo-chan, why did mom hit you?" She sat down next to him, when she said this he flinched _'Why did she have to see that? And why? I wish I knew, it's not the first time she has hit me, but I know the reason for this one.'_ More tears welled up in his eyes despite his hard try to keep them at bay. "Sorry that you saw that, Riku. I think mom thought that I trashed the kitchen, but it wasn't me. It was one of _them_, he screamed that he hurt and when I tried to calm him he tore all the stuffs in the kitchen to pieces." He felt the small impact of a hug and his shoulder felt suddenly wet, he hugged her back. "Why're you crying, Riku?" He asked while removing some lose strands of her black hair from her eyes. "Because you are… why can't I let her know?"

He locked his red eyes with her violet ones, "Because that would scare her, so don't let her know what you can see, okay?" She hesitated, but replied with an "Okay." He smiled at her and dried her tears as well as his own. "Wanna play some? Mom's busy so she won't notice." This made the little girl shine up like a miniature sun "Yes!" she replied eagerly. She could barely remember the last time she played with her red eyed brother.

**XXX XXX XXX**

_You might think that it's not that bad, but this is just one of my fonder memories. I must say that f__or only being a 4 year old, Riku was incredible clever and caring. I wonder how she would've been as an adult, probably the best one you could imagine, and somehow I can easily picture her as a teacher. She was sweet and couldn't hold a grudge against anyone… it feels like someone is stabbing my heart every time I'm thinking of how I killed her in cold blood. Maybe mom was right, maybe I am a devil… a devil's child, yet not her own._

_Every thing went down hill a few days later…_

**XXX XXX XXX**

A swishing sound followed by the sound of cleaving wood echoed in the back yard of the small cottage. It was a cloudy day with the possibility for rain later on. Hjouru had felt uneasy the whole day; even his sleep had been uneasy and he now tense up at every sudden noise. Like now when he heard a pair of small feet approaching him, but relaxed when he saw it was just Riku. "Oh, hi Riku. Something on your mind?" He asked while putting down the small axe, she shook her head in a negative gesture. "Nuh uh, Mom just wants see you at the kitchen."

He looked at her "Did she tell you why?" he asked nervously.

"Nope, but she didn't seem angry though."

"I guess I better go then…" He said mostly to himself while putting on the leather sheath for the axe and then putting it away. During this Riku had disappeared, saying something about "pulling weed" and "Kiri". He entered the kitchen trough the back door and looked around, empty. He walked to the hall and called on her, no answer. He walked back to the kitchen and there she stood, like she had been there the whole time. "You wanted to see me, mom." He asked with curiosity, it was as Riku said, she didn't look angry. In fact, she looked like she couldn't be happier.

She smiled at him, _'How unusual'_ "Yes, I feel like I have been unjust to you and I want to make it up for it by playing a game of tag with you." _'What's the catch? She never plays with me.'_ But she looked so sincere, she really looked like she was regretting something, and maybe she had finally accepted him the way he was. Hjouru hesitated a bit "You're sure? Just you and me?" he couldn't help but to be a little hopeful. Her reply was another beautiful smile and she crouched down and opened up her arms towards him. His eyes widened and he walked towards her slowly before breaking into a small run and hugged her tightly. She wrapped her arms around him and he cried softly into her chest, he finally had a mother who cared about him. Everything would be better from now on, he could feel it…

"So, how about that game now… my son." The last part seemed forced and strained, but in his moment of joy, Hjouru didn't notice, he just nodded happily with tears of joy still running down his cheeks. "Then I'm 'it' and you will have 30 seconds head start, then I'll come, okay?"

"Okay!"

"On three. One. Two. And three!" And Hjouru run out trough the door like a living bolt, shouting "You can't catch me!" with a childish glee and giggles. "Oh, run while you can, because when I catch you, you won't be running anymore you little devil." She whispered with a malicious voice while her hand closed around the handle of one of the knives from the knife stand. After 30 seconds, she chased after him into the dark woods.

**XXX**

Hjouru couldn't stop laughing (or smiling for that matter), it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He laughed while jumping over rocks and while ducking under low hanging branches, he heard another set of feet that wasn't his own and figured his mother had caught up to him. He gave up another series of giggles and looked behind himself, the giggles died down instantly and his happy face turned into a horror stricken one. His eyes widened with fear and he started to have difficult to breath. Hjouru tried to run faster, but every thing that went so smooth for him before, had become a hindrance to him now. The rocks were too high to jump and were every where now. The low branches forced him to slow down, made him trip, made him fall down on his knees or entangled him in their twigs and nearly getting him stuck there.

His lungs burned, but he couldn't stop to rest or his time would stop. His vision was blurred by tears and exhaustion, but to stop wasn't an option. Everything ached, but his heart felt the worst. The betrayal had cut way too deep to be good; it was like it had been rammed with a heated knife covered with acid, acid that was now eating at the edges of the wound, widening it and deepening it. With each foot fall, he saw his mother's twisted face. With each painful heart beat, he saw her hate-filled eyes and the knife clutched in her right hand. Her intentions were clear to him, she wanted him dead, and that's why she was so happy back in the house, because she had made a decision. A decision that would now cost him his life…

He couldn't see where he was going, but he could hear the slow purling of the river. It scared him since he couldn't swim, the river wasn't that wide or deep for a grown up person, but for a five year old it was like a lake. But the chance of survival was higher with the river than with his mother's hands, so he kept running till it felt like his heart couldn't take any more stress. It was then he fell. That one small rock could change the out come of his life that much, was devastating. His chances had plunged from slim to non-existent in seconds, because of one _tiny_… _winy_… _rock_… He came to an abrupt stop after the fall at the edge of the river, completely covered in dirt after the tumbling he went trough. His body hurt and he couldn't stop himself from sobbing and pleading for rescue that wouldn't come, he tried to get up, but couldn't hold up his own weight and crashed back to the ground again. He could only lie there, hearing how his mother came closer and closer till she was standing next to him.

"Done running now, eh?" Her voice rung out above him with venom and he flinched by fear, what would she do now? What come next made him lose his breath, his chest cramped after the kick and the cold impact shocked him, then bubbles were every where around him. He couldn't breathe, but he needed to… but no air maid it to his lungs, only water and it only lead to panic. _'I can't breathe!'_ His remaining strength sipped away fast and he felt very sleepy suddenly. He started to sink, but strangely he didn't feel scared anymore only peaceful and calm. He let the darkness claim him and when he closed his unseeing eyes, one last bubble escaped his lips before every thing went still.

Liza wadded out to where her son landed after the kick, when she finally reached him the water went up to her breasts. She pulled him up and dragged him to the grass, where she let him lay like a ragdoll while she fetched the knife she had put down earlier. She looked up at the cloudy sky and felt small rain drops fall on her up turned face. The wind blow at her wet brown hair and wet clothing, she started to freeze a little. She walked back to the drenched boy, kneeled and murmured a prayer before lifting the knife high up in the air…

**XXX**

His eyes flew open and he immediately took a deep breath. He coughed a bit where he laid and shivered from the sudden cold. He managed to turn his head to the side, only to be greeted with small rain drops on his pale face. His breath came out in gasps, why was it so hard to breath? And why did his chest ach so much? Sure he had been kicked, but this was a different pain. He managed to rise to his hands and knees and a soft jingle was heard from somewhere beneath him. He looked down and saw a small chain connected to his aching chest, why was that chain there? He then heard another sound, it sounded like a prayer but he couldn't be sure. It came from his left and when he turned his head to the direction, he froze like a deer caught in the highlight. There was his mother kneeling in front of a small body, with the knife raised high in the air. But it wasn't that, that had petrified him, the drenched body in front of her was his own.

"M-mom? W-what are y-you doing? W-What's happening?" He shouted in panic, he was so scared that he was trembling. He looked at the chain once again, saw that it led all the way to his mother and was wrapped tight and secure around her. How come she didn't notice something like that?

What ever she had been mumbling about, she had finished now and what happened next would probably hunt him for the rest of his life. At the same time she rammed the knife in his life less body, intense pain erupted from where his chain connected to his chest and it made him scream.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Kiri, it's stuck!" The small girl shouted to her oldest sibling, who only laughed good natural and walked towards her sister. But before she could reach her young sibling the weed Riku was pulling gave after, thus resulting in her falling backwards and hadn't it been for Gigo's catch she would've hit her head. She looked up at her older brother and smiled, showing up the big weed with long deep roots. "It said plop!" She claimed with a big toothy grin, joy radiating from her like a sun.

"Look! Dad's coming home!" Kiri exclaimed with happiness. Her siblings reacted at once, looking immediately at where she was pointing.

When their father finally walked trough the gate, he was tackled to the ground by his kids. "Okay okay! You've missed me, I get it." He said with a smile and hugged the three children in one go. "Now, where are my beloved wife and my youngest son?"

"Last time I saw them it was at the kitchen, but mom was in a good mood, so I don't think Hjouru has done anything bad." Gigo said with a shrug on his shoulders and looked up at the drizzling sky with his brown eyes. His short, spiky, dark brown hair started to flatten out because of the rain, but he didn't really mind it.

"I think I saw him running towards the forest not long ago." Kiri added with a smile and removed a long strand of black hair from her face, "I've never heard him laugh like that, and he sounded so happy." Her brown eyes shone with joy for her youngest brother.

"That's good to hear, I was worried about him the whole morning. Well, we better go inside before anyone of us catches a cold."

"Dad…" Riku whispers frightened, this alarmed her father. What was wrong? "What is it sweet-heart?"

"Who's screaming? It sounds painfull…" she whispered once again, this time with big tears running from her eyes. Lee quickly crouched down and wrapped his arms around his crying daughter. "There, there. Everything is alright. I'll go and check it out while you go inside. Where's the screaming coming from?"

"The-the woods… straight in that direction." She pointed at the forest, the direction she was pointing to led straight to the river's deeper parts. It worried him to say the least. "Kiri, Gigo, take care of Riku while I'm away." His oldest children nodded and Kiri picked Riku up and walked inside, Gigo was close behind. When the children disappeared inside Lee ran in the direction Riku had directed him.

When he reached the site, his stomach clenched and he threw up everything he had eaten that day. "LIZA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? THAT'S OUR SON!"

**XXX**

The pain was unbearable and he just wanted to die now and then where he laid, but death never came, only more pain. He wanted to scream, but couldn't gather enough air and his mouth tasted of iron. The chain connected to his chest looked fragmented, it was falling apart. With each stab of the knife a piece of the chain broke apart and it now looked like the weakest of tugs could ripe the whole thing apart. God it hurt so much… _'Please, make it stop… somebody… it hurts… it hurts!'_ he screamed in his own mind like a mantra.

A scream made him look up, but emptied his stomach at once. The scene in front of him was grotesque; he couldn't believe his mother was the cause of it, but he knew deep down that she was. She was drenched in his blood and the scent made his stomach clench, but he had nothing more to throw up and just dry heaved. Everywhere around her where bits and scraps of flesh scattered. The ground was drenched in blood and the light rain kept it wet and fresh. The whole clearing oozed of blood and it made him feel even worse. He casted one more look on what was once his body, it was completely unrecognisable now. It looked more like a pile of flesh and bone than an actual human body, not even the face had been spared from his mother's onslaught. The teeth's were visible as well as the bones, the eyes had been cut to pieces and the clothes shredded… You couldn't even tell that it once had been human looking.

More tears found their way down from his eyes and he wondered how much a human being could cry in a life time, his whole body shook from the cold, the pain, the fright and the grief he felt… why did he start to feel hungry? It wasn't like any hunger he ever had felt, this one was intense, gnawing at you till you ate or went insane.

His mother's lips moved, but he couldn't hear what she was saying to the devastated man not far from her _'Dad…'_ he remembered sadly. He could feel the rain getting heavier where it hit him on his left side. Liza, his mother, lifted the knife one more time high in the air and he caught a look in her eyes, they looked wild and insane, like she was possessed by a demon… or was it just pure insanity? Had she always been like this on the inside?

The knife fell before his dad could stop her and it was aimed for the single patch of untouched and uncut flesh, the area of the heart. The knife pierced the skin and imbedded itself deep in the body and poked out on the other side and into the soft ground. When the heart was pierced he gave up a shriek of pure agony, it sent jolts down his body and he flew up on his knees clutching his head while his skin started brake apart. The chain exploded into tiny pieces and so did his body in a flash of blinding light.

**XXX**

Lee fell down on his knees, crying rivers. "Why… WHY DID YOU DO IT?" He screamed in distress. "He was your son…" he said quietly, all strength had left him and left was only the sorrow.

"He wasn't my son… only one of the devil's spawn." She answered with a hysteric voice. Her dark brown hair was tangled from the river water and the blood from the body.

"What are you saying? He is… was our son… and you killed him, you killed him! He was just a child!"

"You know as well as I do that he stopped breathing for a minute when he was born! He-" whatever she had planed to say was lost to the world in a shower of fresh blood emitting from her throat. A deep claw mark then appeared on her face and chest and she fell to the ground lifeless, then _something_ started to ripe the flesh from the body and the flesh disappeared into something long and blurry. Lee finally got his legs to work and ran like no tomorrow in the opposite direction, but what ever it was it was soon next to him. He screamed when invisible teeth's clamped around his throat and pressed down. Blood splattered to the ground as well as bits of flesh.

**XXX XXX XXX**

"Come on, Riku, what's wrong?" Kiri asked her sister, who was hiding beneath their bed, she was still crying, but this time from fear and she was shaking like a leaf. "S-something bad has happened…" Riku whispered in fear, clutching a small cross in her tiny hand.

Gigo's voice rang out down stairs "Sis! Can you come down? Something weird is going on!" Kiri gave Riku one more glance and received a small nod, and then she headed down stairs to her brother. "What is it? Riku's shaking like a leaf upstairs you know, I wanna go back to her." Gigo just ignored her, starring out trough the open kitchen door. "Heeeelllloooo? What is it?" She asked and waved her hand in front of his face, getting him out of his trance.

"Lo-look at the forest, the birds are fleeing… and I'm getting a very bad feeling about this…" She looked and her brother was right, the birds were all fleeing, then it felt like something was with them that weren't supposed to be there. Next thing she knew she was laying sprawled outside in the rain together with Gigo, her back ached where something hard had hit her and Gigo lay slumped over a rock, bleeding from the head and torso. "G-Gigo? Can-can you hear me?" no answer, but he was breathing, thank God.

A pressure on her neck made her freeze in fright, what was it? It felt almost like a hand, but it had long talons that poked at her tender throat. The pressure increased and cut of her air way almost completely, she could still breathe, but barely. Tears escaped her eyes and she looked over at her little brother again, her eyes widened in panic as her face was meet with a spray of blood and she screamed a strangled scream.

**XXX**

Riku shook worse than ever, she could hear her sister screaming before it went completely silent, only thing she could hear was her own erratic breathing… and the sound of claws against the tree floor. The thing was inside the house again and on its way to her hiding place. And then she saw it, her wide scared eyes taking in the form in the door opening.

It looked like an over grown lizard that had learned how to walk on its hind legs. Its face had visible rows with very sharp teeth and two horns on the top of its head. And small tags were leaping along the back to the tip of the tail. Its hands and feet had sharp claws and its eyes were glowing with a menacing yellow colour. It was hard to see what colour the being had, but it looked like it was supposed to be mostly white with a red pattern on the back and some of the same red pattern on the arms, legs and tail. But now it was covered in sleek blood that was dripping on the floor, leaving small puddles where it stood.

It gave up a high pitched shriek that made her blood run cold in its veins. She was dragged out in the hair by a clawed hand and she screamed in terror, trashing violently to get lose from her intimidating captor, but it was in vain. She pleaded for her mom and dad, but when the toothed mask came dangerously close to her face she caught a flash of red in the eyes of the beast and remembered the painfull sounding shriek moments ago. "Don't do this… Hjouru-nii-san…" But the creature that was once her brother didn't stop and put its strong jaws around her small head and bit down slowly, drawing out the end and the painfull shrieking from the small girl till a crack was heard and she fell limp in its hungry mouth.

The hunger had been satisfied for now and the newly born raptor looking hollow fled through a black portal, when it felt the presence of a Shinigami coming closer and closer…

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**Well, what did you think? Good? Bad? Acceptable? let me know.**

**I don't know when the next chapter will be out, I haven't written down any ideas to it yet since when I wrot the basic I din't plan on having it in, but I decided I wanted to have it. It will be called "Past in the Vast Desert"**

**Untill then, take care! :3**


	8. Past in the Vast Desert

**A/N: Okay! Chapter Eight is finally here! I apollogise for the wait to everyone who has readen this far. :3**

**Read and Review, but most importantly, Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach it belongs to Tite Kubo, but I do own my OOC's. **

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**- Chapter VIII: Past in the Vast Desert -**

_You have recently got to know some of my childhood as well as my tragic death. You also know how I killed and ate my family, then how I fled from the Shinigami coming after me trough a garganta... since that night I have spend over 100 years in Hueco Mundo, it was lonely, but I didn't think like that back there, only in the beginning and closer to the end._

_I planned on showing you this in my perspective, how I saw things and felt them. I know no words can excuse me for what I've done, but I still want to try... I feel things again that I didn't as a lowly hollow. Sure, I still have those basic hollow instincts, but they're not driving me anymore and I don't attack everything that moves or breaths..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

The first thing I felt when I regained consciousness, was the warm earthy ground beneath my sore body. My hand was resting on something bulky and hard, it had a weird rough texture that felt familiar, but I couldn't remember from where. I could barely remember anything, and what I remembered was hazy. _A dark sky and small droplet of water falling down on me... A delicious smell not far away, it's emitting from the two creatures in front of me. One very masculine and the other strikingly feminine, it feels like I should know who they are, but everything is blank. But I want something from them, something to still the pain I feel. I walk closer and the smell gets stronger, instincts tells me what to do and I don't hesitate in following them... A wonderful taste in my mouth and how I want more and more of it... Then lastly, the approaching scent of an enemy, I both want to taste it like with the other smell and to escape from it... I chose the later and fled._

I slowly managed lift my heavy eyelids, a dark and gloomy forest greeted my eyes and I felt strangely at home. I looked at my hand to see what it was touching; it was one of the roots of the thick trees, and the weird texture I felt was probably the bark of the tree. What little light that was there came from the covered sky and some of the weird small glowing plants, but something was very off, there was no wind, everything was still, no scents except from the ground and the one from the trees that didn't smell like trees. Then it occurred to me; I was completely alone in this gloomy place that I didn't even know the name of... Name... I don't know my name... Who am I? What am I? Where am I? I was scared and instincts screamed at me to get up and run, but I couldn't, it hurt so much.

I saw something move in the corner of my eye and before I knew it I had rolled around and pinned the small creature beneath my hand, _it_ made a small squeak. Then the pain made itself reminded and I nearly collapsed when my arms and legs threatened to give out. The _thing_ pinned down looked like a small lizard with a white mask covering its tiny head, and when I picked it up by its tail I saw hole through its stomach. It confused me, shouldn't a hole like that be life threatening... and bleeding? I placed it on my open hand and saw it walk around a bit. The lizard thing looked completely fine, not in the least bit of pain. I was really fascinated by the small creature in my hand and it didn't take long for me to sit down and just look at it. It was first then I really noticed the whiteness of my hands and feet and with that, the vicious talons each digit had. While looking at them I remembered the ease they had sliced trough flesh and bone, there had been no restraints at all and the bones hadn't even slowed them down the least. When thinking back on this, I couldn't help but to grow excited to do it again and see if it went just as easy.

Something made a sound behind me and I jumped away and whirled around, with lizard still in hand and saw... nothing. When I relaxed it came another thump from behind and the process repeated itself several times... still nothing. I stayed alert for several minutes, but neither heard or saw something unusual. I could no longer ignore my body's screams of agony and sat down to rest and made sure that I hadn't squeezed the lizard to death by accident, it was very much alive, but looked a bit dizzy after the many fast turnarounds. The thump again was heard and I stiffened, but looked behind instead of whirling around like the other times. It was then I saw what it was and I felt really, really, _really_ stupid... it was a tail... a very long tail... and it was mine. I had been chasing my own tail this whole time.

I started to feel hungry and some scents started to stand out greatly compared to those that belonged to the surroundings. Like the lizard's in my hand, its scent grew stronger by each passing second and I could feel my mouth starting to water. I wanted it, like I wanted the source of the sweet smell back there in the rain. The lizard probably sensed this as it tried to escape my open hand, but only managed to take a few steps before I closed it around the little thing, head and tail was the only thing visible and it squeaked in terror, trying desperately to escape, only to fail each time. No matter how sickening it sounds, I enjoyed seeing the small creature squirm in pain and terror and my lips formed into a blood thirsty grin.

I brought my mouth closer to the terrified creature, but reached it faster than what I had expected. It was like I had a second mouth and I brought my free hand up to my face to touch. What I touched was hard and felt similar to what the lizard had on its face; it was like a mask, but not exactly. I had no actual feeling in the thing covering my face and yet I knew when stuff was touching it. When I touched the lizard with the tip of my mask, I would guess it was approximately 6 inches from what I take as my actual face, but why did I think it was unusual to touch things so far from my mouth? Shouldn't it feel normal?

The lizard chose that moment to start squirming again and my attention was back on it immediately. I decided that playing with it would be very amusing and threw it up in the air, then caught it with my mouth and started to shake the 'poor' creature. The high shrieking it did only excite me even more and I wanted to see how much pain I could inflict before it would die. Blood had since long stained my mask's sharp teeth when the creature decided to finally lay limp and unmoving, clearly dead.

I dropped it on the ground to see if it would start moving again, even nudged it slightly... nothing. Play time was over, for now at least, and I picked it up in the tail once again and threw it up in the air, then bit down hard on the small body and the sweet taste of blood filled my mouth. To my surprise, the aching in my chest lessened and the ach in my bones faded slightly. It actually felt good to eat another being like I did... and I wanted more, much more... something stronger than the puny little lizard... something that could fight back.

**XXX XXX XXX**

_From then on, I attacked and devoured everything that came in my way. Humans, souls, hollows, even shinigamis. I attacked them all and won... with each kill the pain lessened, only to return when I wasn't killing or eating. It was maddening._

_It took years before I dared to even stay and fight with the Shinigami coming after me, and it was in my first fight with them that I learned I could regenerate lost limbs..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

I had found the best feeding spot, a newly crashed train that somehow had jumped out of its train track itself, right before the beginning of a mountain tunnel... Humans would think it was a horrible sight that would give you nightmares, but I thought it looked like art with the trashed train; now mostly resembling a stomped tin can than an actual train... and the once clear windows was now smeared with blood. In human standard it looked worse on the inside where the mangled bodies were, body parts was strewn over the floors, blood smeared everywhere, skulls smashed by their owners luggage and the smell... it started to drive me insane. It was so many souls that I didn't know where to start, but I decided to take the nearest one, a crying child who was tightly held by what had to be her mother. She actually tried to put up a fight and it made me change my mind, I would take _her_ before the child instead. I let out an insane giggle and the look on her face was priceless. The small child let out a terrified scream when I killed her mother before her eyes, the rest of the passengers reacted with fright and started to panic, stepping over each other in order to find an escape. It was actually quite amusing just to watch it.

After I had eaten at least twenty of the passenger the shinigami appeared, and by the look on his face, he was about to empty his stomach from the sight and smell. Haha, he hadn't even spotted me yet where I lay among the mangled bodies, but I don't blame him, I was after all covered in blood from head to tail tip and didn't move from my spot. He was nervous when he slowly started to advance to the next train cart. When he unknowingly passed me I lashed out without warning. I got in a good hit on the side of his face and forced him backwards, making trip over a man's dead body and fall on his back on the seats. I loomed over him in matter of seconds and I was thrilled by the fear I could smell emitting from him. Despite his trembling he quickly lashed out with his zanpakutou and gave me a deep slash on my exposed torso, making me shriek out in pain and backing of slightly.

It was the only thing he needed to get back on his shaking feet. The three deep slashes ran from the top of his head, through his left eye, blinding it permanently and to his cheek bone, his black hair mat with the blood that kept pouring out like rivers. He was swaying on the spot, but refused to go down by a lowly hollow. I howled in raged and attacked straight on, I could see how he smirked at my recklessness, but I didn't give a damn about it, I wanted to tear him to pieces with my bare hands and rip him apart with my sharp teeth!

He swung at me, but only managed to hit my left arm slightly and got a hard hit on his right side from my tail, by the sound I broke a few of his ribs. He then made a blind cut and successfully cut of my tail. I quickly jumped away shrieking, leaving a thick blood trail after me. What had been cut off was moving like crazy and twitching like no tomorrow. I felt heavily unbalanced without it and hissed heatedly "**Sssshinigamiii!"** He looked shocked that I could speak; I didn't know myself that I could until now, but it was hard and felt un-natural. I charged again, but instead of a sword I was met with a red ball, I think he called it Hado-something, it burned where it hit me and we were temporary surrounded by smoke and the smell of burnt flesh. He swung the katana now and I caught the blade in my hand, which started to bleed, with my free hand I clawed at his face and tried to bit down on his head, my mouth was stopped by his other hand and I could see how he struggled not to collapse. The red ball he had shot earlier had set fire on the train seats, giving the scene an eerie light. His face froze in shock and pain when something erupted from his chest, making him spew up blood and fall limp; the only thing holding him up was my newly re-grown tail. I pulled it out with a sickening sound and started to feed greedily on my price. The taste was amazing, so sweet, it was like everything I had eaten before tasted like sand compared to this...

**XXX XXX XXX**

_From that point, Soul Society knew of my existence, it feels like it didn't bother them much in the beginning, but after I had devoured at least fifteen of their own they became nervous. I killed my last shinigami when I newly had became an Adjucha, my appearance hadn't changed much from when I was a normal hollow, so it was easy to get used to. The strong need to attack everything that moved had lessened too, but I was still viscous and killed all hollow that came near me... except for one..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

I had recently finished my meal of three other Adjuchas when I felt the small pressure again. The weakling it belonged to had been following me around for weeks now on a distance, but I noticed that the hollow had started to move slightly closer, not by much, but it dared to come closer each passing day. I was curious, that was the only reason why I hadn't killed it yet... curiosity... I couldn't remember the last time I felt that, but I know I felt it before, but when? It doesn't matter.

The pressure grew closer each day now and after another week had passed, I finally saw it. It looked like lynx, body size and all... it was a female. I had grown so used to sensing her presence, that I didn't react much when she was just a few meters away from me and in my line of sight. She was either very brave or very stupid... maybe both, but surprisingly I didn't feel like eating her. I blamed it on that I newly had eaten, but that had never stopped me before, better not think on it too much.

Next time I woke I felt warmer than I should; I saw the reason quickly and pushed the Damn Neko out of _my_ cave before going out to hunt. I always slept in the Menos Forest, les things likely to attack me and provided more cover than the open desert above. I easily climbed the quarts tree and made it to the surface without problems. Hours or maybe days later I felt the Damn Neko's reiatsu spike in self-defence; she was being attacked by something way stronger than herself, yet weaker than me. Before I could think I was running towards their direction and decided that it was just because I was still curious that I wanted to kill the attacker.

I have no idea what that ugly thing was supposed to look like, but I think I could see a small, okay, _tiny_ resembles to a pig. Mr. Ugly was looming over my Neko, backing her into a corner of the cliffs. I could see her trembling form even from here, it made me angry, both of her weakness and how he dared to threaten what was mine! Before he could react I had chomped down on his throat and thrown him away, I then howled at him in challenge, which he didn't respond to other then slowly backing away in fright. This only angered me further and made me dash towards him, ready to rip apart and eat. He didn't last long, he didn't even try to stop me, _how_ _pathetic_!

Neko started to slowly move towards me, it's kinda hilarious, she was afraid of that weakling but not of me... why? What was she doing now? Is she... nuzzling my arm? I quickly pushed her away again and growled at her. She backed off slightly, but not by much and followed me closely when I started to walk away.

**XXX XXX XXX**

_Chuckle, __that's how I met Raya, persistent wasn't she? Followed me everywhere, including to the living world. I think it was thanks to her that I started to find myself again, I'm grateful to her and sees her as my closest friend. I actually managed to become a Vasto Lorde, we had been comrades for 25 years then, but her powers stopped growing after 10 years, what a shame. She wanted me to devour a piece of her mask, but I point blank refused, saying that she either was whole or dead, she didn't push the subject any further after that._

_During my time as an Adjucha and even during my short time as a Vasto Lorde, I made sure to keep away from the Vasto Lorde Barragan Luisenbarn, also known as the "King of Hueco Mundo". I had never met him at that point, just heard rumours from others. Apparently he looked like a living skeleton wearing a black robe, creepy if you ask me. I think I've seen pictures in some book on how humans think the Shinigami looks like, and Barragan fits it perfectly! I didn't meet him during my time as a hollow, but did after I had been forced through the shinigami-fication process, which turns a hollow into an Arrancar..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

I had been a Vasto Lorde for a couple of months only and it felt great, all this power, all these rational thoughts... I was almost whole, almost human, something that my whole body longed to be...

Raya had taken off somewhere, probably hunting or exploring. It's weird, even though she couldn't grow stronger, she still had to eat like she could or she would revert into a mindless Gillian, with no hope to ever evolve again. That's the reason why cannibalistic hollows keep eating and evolving, some reach their limit early like Raya and some go one step further like me and a few others.

I was currently taking a 'cat-nap' when my head suddenly snapped up in high alert, something was wrong... something's after Raya! I was on my feet in seconds and dashed towards her location. When I got there I didn't like what I saw, Raya laying there bloodied and beaten and the bastard responsible for it was about to bit down on her frail body! I moved quickly and soundless and wasn't noticed before it was too late for the attacker to stop me from attacking his exposed back. I teared at the skin with my talons and bit his neck with vigour; it didn't take long until my mouth was filled with blood, nor until my arms and legs were sleek with the same substance. His pain filled shrieks rang out clearly in the silent wasteland. He tried to shake me off, but he only managed to make the tears in his skin deeper and wider. When I heard Raya whimper in pain, I started to attack his throat, shallow enough to not kill him... yet. I was going to let the bastard bleed to death and since I was in the cruel mood, I decided to tear of small pieces of his mask and eat them. It was like when birds peck at cadavers, small pieces that would hurt badly on a living creature. He eventually succumbed to the injuries and dissolved into ash looking particles, weakling didn't last longer than a few minutes, how boring.

I suddenly heard clapping and spun quickly around facing the possible threat. Going by the reiatsu the human looking figure emitted, he was a Shinigami... a very strong shinigami, probably even stronger than me. He was scary, he looked friendly, but something told me it was just a facade hiding a more sinister side. **"What do you want, Shinigami?" **I asked with a steady voice and body in a defensive position.

"Quite the feat to take down someone so close to Vasto Lorde class, but of course, it's so much easier if you areone yourself, am I right?"

I froze, how did he know? I looked almost the same as my Adjucha form and I was hiding my reiatsu too. **"What are you talking about, Shinigami? Do I look like a Vasto Lorde to you?"**

"Then I ask you hollow, who says that a Vasto Lorde must look human? I can tell that you are one, despite your try in hiding it. You would be a great assist in my army against the Shinigami, you if anyone should know that their greatest wish is the extermination of all Hollow kind."

I growled at him, not thrusting him the least. "**What's your name Shinigami?"**

He smiled like I had played directly into his hands. "Aizen Sousuke. And you?"

I decided to lie to his question, better not letting him know if I had a choice in the matter.** "I ain't got a name, but your kin has called me Raptor for years."**

"I see. Do you wish to come with me to Las Noches?" Something told me it wasn't a question, but a demand, he wanted me to follow him like a loyal dog just because the difference in strength. How disappointed he will be, but deep inside I had a feeling I didn't have a choice in the matter. **"Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no intention in being involved with your war."**

"Oh, and why is that? You do after all gain something from this deal; more power for an example... and you can kill as many shinigamis you want when the time comes."

I glared daggers at him, how dare he think power is the only thing I care for? That was when I was drowning in despair... my early hollow state. **"We don't want to, now leave us alone."** Raya had recovered enough to walk now, it hurt her, but I would carry her when we were away from this manipulative bastard, right now it was better to show indifference. **"Come Raya, let's go."** I began to walk away, maybe not the smartest thing to turn your back to a possible enemy, I couldn't think clearly at the moment. Raya followed on a small distance, all four legs wobbling while she tried to walk as fast as possible.

The Shinigami, Aizen was his name right? Was mumbling something, sounded almost like a chant, then suddenly black walls started to rise around me, shutting me out from the desert completely. The blackness was everywhere, it surrounded me... and it _hurt. _It started by little and then grew in intensity rapidly, after only a couple of seconds I couldn't keep myself from screaming loudly in pain, but my screams were short lived. I couldn't scream more even if I wanted to and I could taste blood in my mouth and throat... my blood. When my own screams had died I could hear a more feminine one, Raya's, she was scared and worried, I could hear that she didn't know what to do, I don't blame her, 'cuz neither do I. It felt like daggers and swords where rammed and twisted in my body, it probably only lasted for a few seconds, but t felt like hours until I lost consciousness from the torture. The last thing I remembered was the intense pain everywhere and the scent from my blood covering the most of my mangled body.

**XXX XXX XXX**

_You might wonder why I was so viscous as a hollow when I'm rather tame now. I think it's because the way I died... Mom made me feel wanted the last hour of my life, then betraying me severely by killing me and worst of all, enjoying it while cutting up what was left of my corps! And all those horrors during my run through the forest, then the water... Things like that cuts deep and it made me unable to pass on... I remember being chained to my mom, I think Rukia called that a Tsuki spirit. While a Jibaku spirit is chained to a specific location, Ichigo told me once about this dude called Don Kanonji and how he accidently made one into a hollow, and it was showed on this funny squared box called TV, LIVE! Apparently that is something big, though I'm not sure if it's good or not, but it seems so._

_Anyway, back to subject... ummm... as a hollow I was in agony all the time, picture yourself with the world's biggest and deepest cut, add severed limbs and being unable to fall unconscious, something like that did I feel like all the time, except from when I had killed, and after eating it was like heaven, no pain at all, but it would always return... I didn't want it to return, so I ate and killed everything I saw. The pain lessened with each of my evolutions, as a Vasto Lorde the pain was just like a constant stomach ache, which was something I could live with without going berserk._

_I still can't believe how I could be so stupid to turn my back to Aizen, but it probably wouldn't have matter if I faced him or not, sigh. Life sure sucks sometimes... but I guess it turned out pretty good anyway..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

Damn what my body hurt, feels like I was run over by a truck...oh right... that has actually happened once, but I know for sure I wasn't this time, something with a black box I think. I also feel very weird, lighter somehow and something soft was hanging down around my face, what could that be? I have yet to open my eyes, but at the moment they feel so heavy I decide wait with it, but I could tell that I was laying on something comfortable... what is it? It feels familiar and soft to the touch too. I slowly rise into a sitting position, I had been laying on my stomach and something big and soft glided down from my shoulders, I felt a little bit chilled when the warmth the thing had produced disappeared like that. I slowly opened my eyes; the sight was blurry for a long time before clearing up.

I had long black strands of something hanging down in front of my face and I brought up one of my clawed hands to touch it, but when I saw my hand it had no claws nor was it chalk white like usual. It was lightly tanned like most of the humans' skins I had seen in the World of the Living, what did this mean? I wasn't a human, so why did I have the hands as one? I suddenly realised that I didn't have the long mask attached to my face anymore and slowly raised my right hand to touch. I found no resistance except from more normal skin, but what was this? Something hard beneath my left eye, it reached down to my mouth and had a row with small sharp teeth. I also saw a weird red pattern on my right arm... sure I had patterns before, but not on a single body part like this. I looked down, I was only dressed in a pair of boxers and my hollow hole was clearly visible on my exposed chest. I circled my finger around the edge of the hole absentminded, I wasn't a human that much was sure, but what was I? I've never heard of a hollow looking so human like I do now. I touch the long black strands poling around me, first now noticing that it in fact is my hair... it is way too long for my liking, gotta fix that soon.

I was jerked out of my musing by a door opening into the room I was sitting in... man, is everything white in here? A girl walked in, she had middle long brown hair and just as equal brown eyes I think. She feels familiar, but how? I've never seen her before... I first now notice that she's carrying a tray with some bottles on, wonder what those contain. She looks up and drops the tray in surprise, I don't blame her, I probably look really animalistic right now... you see I can't decide whether I should kill, eat or ignore her, I decide for the last one for now, but I stay in the defensive position I forced my body into when she came in, it strains my muscles terrible but I refuse to let my guard down. I hiss warningly at her before I'm aware of what I'm doing. I feel terrible unbalanced without my tail; it feels like I will tip forward all the time, it's embarrassing! My eyes are narrowed and I'm ready to bounce on her any second.

She recovered from her shock and slowly starts to pick up the tray and the scattered items, then places it on the small table not far from the bed I'm sitting on. Despite her act as calmed and controlled I can smell her fear, but also her relief. Why was she relieved in the presence of a predator?

I observed her closely and I could see it bothered her, every move she made she made sure to do them slowly, like when she brought over a small chair, she did it so that I would see her every move. I dunno but It's actually makes me calmer, like she's not a threat but a comrade... it feels nice. Damn my body hurts, feels like I'm going to collapse any second. Right after that thought I gave up an involuntary grunt of pain and my arms and legs gave out and I fell into a heap on the bed. The girl immediately stood up and rushed to my side, she placed a hand on my shoulder, which I swatted away right away and growled threateningly at her to stay away. She did so instantly, but looked unsure before sitting down on the chair again. "Do... do you remember... who I am, Zenro-san?" She asked uncertain, it looked like she was afraid of something...

I thought carefully before answering truthfully, "I don't know you, but it feels like I should..." she looked really sad when I said that "But you do feel familiar." How did she know my sure name? Did Raya loose her tongue? Or...

"It's me... we've been travelling together for years, you remember, right?" She looked so hopefully that I couldn't help but to answer right away. "Yeah, how can I forget the little neko with a death wish?" I joked with small chuckle, she too laughed at that and cried... of joy... I hope... I'm not good with these kinds of things. "Umm, are you alright? Those are tears of joy, right? Or did I –" she put her finger on my lips and shook her head. "No, you didn't make me sad, you made me very happy." She dried her eyes with her hands, "I was afraid that you'd be different when you woke up again, but you're still you."

**XXX XXX XXX**

_Okay, I admit! I didn't recognise her the least! For starters; she had brown hair and not the bone white armour I was used to, and she was tall! Taller than me with a few inches! Plus, she had a human face and not the one of a cat! I felt amazing after I woke up back then; light, agile and powerful... but the best part was that I could feel more, kindness was one of the new ones, it felt like I operated better than before._

_Aizen was of course very happy that I finally had woken up after three days, bastard had turned me into an Arrancar while unconscious. Since he hadn't tried that before, he wasn't sure about the consequences, would I lose some of my power or would I gain like you normally did after the process? Or maybe I would lose some memories? Well, I would say it was a success, I grew stronger, but I made it into a game to pretend that Raya was the stronger of us. She was a little bit annoyed at me after a while, but it fooled most of them, but not all... Aizen, Tousen, Ulquiorra and Gin is some of the ones not fooled, but Gin being Gin played along with my game, he even helped sometimes. Even if he was creepy on the outside he was a nice guy on the inside, he didn't like Aizen at all, in fact, he wanted him dead!_

_By some reason Nnoitra was on Raya constantly, I didn't like that, so naturally I would try and stop him, but that didn't work too good, nearly snapped on him and fought for real, but I managed to get a hold of myself. I let him batter me around to a certain degree, it was embarrassing, but was well needed for my cover/game and Gin was nice enough to save me too._

_Aizen kept pestering me about the war and that it was my duty to fight beneath him, I point blank refused every damn single time and claimed I needed more time to think about it. It worked in the beginning... but he eventually lost his patience... and it was then I lost my memory. He had me sealed away far away from Las Noches and when I finally broke free from the prison, I couldn't remember anything. The first thing I saw was the white desert and a half destroyed Las Noches, I was pretty much defenceless, no knowledge on how to fight or on what I was... and the hollows could feel it. I was an easy prey to them, one effortless thicket to Vasto Lorde level. When the first Adjucha went after me, I instinctual fled to the living world, it was actually first then I started to be aware of things again. It took the hollow a couple of minutes to find me... and it was then everything began. I met Ichi and his friends, faced the hollows and found out the truth about myself, I met Raya again, fought Ichi against my will and ended up remembering my whole past..._

_It hurts so much...I can feel again? Is... is it getting lighter? Yes it does... I feel warmer too..._

**XXX XXX XXX**

Bright red eyes flew open and the young boy let out a piercing scream, alerting everyone in the house...

* * *

**Well, that was that. Was it good? Bad? Let me know 'cuz it doesn't feel like you guys appreciate the time I put down in writing this. I wanna know if it's something I can improve, or if it's something I should add or remove in the story. Personally I don't think asking for at least one review on each chapter is to much trubble.**

**Next chapter is going to be called "Wound at Heart" and as you can see Hjouru's waking up. I wonder, should I write at the end of chapter 6 that Hjouru's not going to die in chapter 7 and 8? I doubt I'm going to have him killed in later chapters, you see, I'm quite fond of him :3**

**See ya next tume and don't forget to leave a review, all form of critism is welcomed and reviews motivites me to write faster! X3**

**P.S: If you have any questions don't hesitate to let me know! :D**


	9. Wound at Heart

**Sorry for the long wait but here it is :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach it belongs to Kubo Tite, but I do own my oocs' and my ideas :)**

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**- Chapter IX: Wound at Heart -**

Where was he? He couldn't move! Red eyes were wide with fright and he screamed till he could taste copper in his mouth, and even then he didn't he stop, couldn't stop. A door banged open suddenly and he snapped his head involuntary towards the sound, it felt like a hundreds of scorching knives were stabbed along his back with that simple movement. He saw four humanoid figures rushing in and it only caused him to panic further, and to make matters worse he didn't recognize any of them!

They tried to calm him down, but they were only making it worse. Hjouru tried to move his arms and bat away the pair of strong reaching hands, but it only sent wave after wave of burning agony trough his whole body and still they refused to move, not even twitching! He felt something prick his neck and tried to move away from it, but it only resulted in even more pain. His breathing was erratic and the heart beats way too fast to be healthy. His dilated pupils scanned over the figures, they were speaking to him, probably had from the beginning, but he couldn't make anything out from it. He probably looked wild and crazy where he laid, like a wild animal or something. He was calming down against his will and saw a familiar mop of orange…_ 'Orange..?. orange… Orange!'_

"..I..ch…i.." A very hoarse voice called out, almost like a whisper, but the four figures heard it. His voice sounded foreign, raspy and broken, probably from the screaming. He could recognize the worried faces now, Isshin, Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu. How could he have forgotten them? Was he really such a bad person?… wait, could he even call himself a person now? He was dead. Dead since long. Only mimicking the appearance of his human shell. He was nothing but a monster in human disguise… He had killed people, eaten them even, so why wasn't the shinigamis killing him for being what he was?

"Thank God, Hjouru." Isshin exclaimed after hearing him talk. "Have you any idea how worried we were for you? We thought you'd never wake up. Yuzu, could you fetch a glass of water?"

"Mmh." She said and nodded and then walked out of the room. The faint sound of running water distracted Hjouru from the pain when Isshin put him in a sitting position, had he been given morphine when he didn't hurt so much from the move? The injection could've contained anything, but what made him the most curious was how Isshin had managed to make the bed move by only pressing one button on some kind of remote.

"'m 'orry…" Hjouru mumbled out.

The three remaining people looked at each other confused, why was he apologizing? "You don't have to apologize, Hjouru. It wasn't your fault." Karin spoke up softly, it was very weird hearing her sound like that, but not unpleasant.

But not his fault? How could it _not _be his fault? It was _he_ who walked out of the house, _he_ who trusted the bastard Aizen, _he_ who could've killed Ichigo and would have if Ulquiorra, Grimmjow and Raya hadn't interfered. Only thinking on those particular memories made his heart clench and his back burn.

_Aizen lead him through corridor after corridor and it didn't take Hjouru long to get lost. _'Where's he taking me? I don't recognise this wing... it feels sinister.'_ He felt scared, but didn't let it show on the outside._

"_Ah, here we are." Aizen said, jolting Hjouru out of his thoughts. They had stopped in front of a large door, white of course, which the ominous feeling just oozed off and he couldn't hide his unease any longer._

"_Where are we, Aizen?" He asked with a slight tremble on the voice. "I don't recognise this place... I thought you were going to help me get back to Karakura..."_

_Aizen just looked at him with that fake smile plastered onto his face. "That's why I brought you here, Hjouru, to prepare your departure."_

_Hjouru stared at him with disbelief "But Raya's going with me, so why isn't she here now? Doesn't she need to prepare too?"_

"_Her preparation won't take as long as yours, we need to check your health to ensure that you can travel safely." He pated Hjouru on his right shoulder lightly, "You are after all still injured."_

"_Oh, o-okay..." Hjouru said unsure, was it really wise to go in into an unknown room with a man you despised? Probably not he decided, so when he turned away from the door to walk away, Aizen stopped him with his hand that were still resting on his injured shoulder._

"_And where do you think you're going?" He asked coldly and he was met with a small glare._

"_To get Raya. Where going to Karakura by or own device. So let go of me!" But the hold didn't disappear from his shoulder; instead it increased, causing Hjouru to squirm in pain. A sudden jerk on his head made him cry out as he was forced to meet Aizen's gaze. He brought up his hands in order to try and pry loos Aizen's hand from his hair while shouting "Let go!" as tears started to gather in eyes, almost spilling over. Never had he felt more like a kid as he did right now, he was scared and hurting, and had no idea what the man in front of him was planning. A heavy pressure started to press him down and he found himself unable to breath, this time his tears did spill. Hjouru's knees buckled and the only thing supporting his weight was his hands latching onto Aizen's and the strong grip on his hair._

_Through this whole ordeal swords hanged forgotten at his sides as he was dragged into the room and its horrors._

Yuzu's return with the water woke him up from the memory. The cold water was shooting for his throat, he couldn't remember last time water tasted this great.

"Karin, Yuzu, could you two please leave? Ichigo and I need to talk to Hjouru in private." Isshin asked as he checked the fluid bag connected to Hjouru's IV. He could tell that Yuzu didn't mind; it was soon time for dinner anyway, but when Karin was about to protest he sent her a look that said 'no buts' and she too (albeit reluctantly) left the room. The door closed with a small click and the older shinigami made sure no one was eavesdropping before getting to business.

"I... Hjouru... I'm sorry." Ichigo said, head hanging low where he sat in the chair next to the bed.

Said boy just glanced uninterested at the mop of orange hair. "Not 'u' fault... I-chi." He said without emotion in the voice, which alerted Isshin that something was very wrong.

"Hjouru, what's wrong?" Isshin asked worriedly.

Hjouru's answer was just a sullen away turning of his head. _'What's wrong he asks... everything is wrong. I killed my own family, my little sister was the only one who understood me in that hell hole. And I killed her!'_

"No, look at me when I'm talking to you." No answer and Isshin started to get irritated. Ichigo had also caught on that something was indeed wrong with his friend. "Hjouru." Isshin said with a definite tone with no room for arguments. This time the boy turned his head in their direction and locking eyes with Isshin, eyes that held grief, hurt and self-loathing.

Tears started to fall when he whispered out those dreadful words "I killed them... all of 'em..."

**xxx xxx xxx**

Hjouru was in a very bad mood, he had been stuck this fucking room for two whole weeks now and it was driving him literary insane. Isshin had commented that his back was healing faster than what was normal, but Isshin had written it off as a lingering effect of Orihime's rejection powers; apparently he had been exposed of it for quite a while and thus it was still doing its job. He himself though, thought it was his own regeneration ability that finally had kicked in after being dormant, could his memory return have anything to do with it? Whatever the case, he hadn't bothered to inform Isshin or Ichigo about that little neat trick. He would... eventually... when he felt like it. He was currently resting his arms on the open window sill, hadn't it been for the window (and its good view) he'd probably torn down the whole room by now... or starting to climb its walls... that actually sounds like a fun idea, if not only to see Isshin's and Ichigo's faces, oh that would be priceless. Maybe he really should do that, it surely would get rid of _some_ of the boredom... but at the same time it was quite peaceful just sitting there, looking out and letting the wind play with the hair.

Unfortunately his calm didn't last long before it was blown away like the wind, when images of his dead sister Riku entered his mind._ 'I'm so sorry... please forgive me...'_ these thoughts were repeated over and over again as he cried silent in his arms, body trembling with each sob. The worst part of Riku's death had probably been that she _knew_ it was him. He couldn't begin to imagine how that must feel... _Knowing_ that it's your own brother that's currently crushing your skull, and worst of all, _knowing_ how he enjoyed doing it. Just thinking on made him sick and forced him to walk slowly and painfully towards the bathroom, where he emptied his stomach in the toilet. It took several minutes before he had mustered the strength to walk back to the bed, there was no way he was going to be carried back again, no way, his dignity had suffered enough thank you very much.

Couldn't Raya be here now... whenever she was close everything felt alright, like it was going to be okay no matter what. She hadn't visit yet today and wouldn't either, Urahara had needed her assistance in some project of his. Oh, she better not come to harm or he would... he would... do something at least. Trashing Urahara's lab maybe? Sounds fun though.

He sighed depressingly, but turned rigid suddenly, senses on high alert. He turned his head towards the door; someone was on the other side of it, hesitating. _'Karin? What does she want?'_

**xxx xxx xxx**

She had waited long enough now, today was the time to get the answers on her questions, her father and brother refused to tell her anything so she had to go to the source of it all. That was Karin's decision when she made her way up the stairs and towards Hjouru's room. An old photo was tightly secured in her hand; she had found it when she had investigated the news article. The photo was supposed to be a family portrait of the killed family and the youngest son locked shockingly like Hjouru, albeit several years younger, here he looked to be around three maybe four years old.

She reached Hjouru's room, stopped outside the door and hesitated. Should she really go in there and disturb him? He had seemed to be in a very bad mood the whole morning, like a black cloud had been hanging over him, threatening to unleash its thunder any second without warning. _'What the hell is with me today?'_ With that she knocked once and entered. What she was met with, was not what she had expected, not at all. Hjouru's normally gentle red eyes were set in a hard glare directed towards her, it really scared her, she had never seen him so mad, she could swear that the pupils looked like slits and that his eyes glowed ominously. A weird sound escaped his throat and it took a couple of seconds before Karin realised what he was doing. _'Is... is he _snarling_ at me?' _And snarling he was, but the sound didn't sound human, in fact it sounded more like it came from an animal.

She suddenly felt like something was pressing her down, making it hard to breath and the horrible feeling of something invisible crawling all over her. She was so scared she couldn't hide it anymore. What was happening? It felt like thousands of needles were stabbing her heart, claws tearing at her skin, the sense of dread and that drowning feeling. It felt like she was drowning in despair, but not her own... it was _his_. The room looked dark, it was if the shadows had grown bigger and stretched where they normally couldn't reach and he seemed to be the source of it. His eyes were really glowing and she found herself unable to avert her gaze from them. She was trembling now, it was a wonder she still could stand on her feet when they felt so numb. The room started to get filled with some kind of dust fragments; it was scary how the clothes looked to eat themselves up, blowing away like dust from his skin. _'What... is... he?'_ Karin thought as sweat pearls broke from her skin under the pressure. It wasn't only Hjouru's clothes that were dissolving, his skin was also, you could see that on his right side on both arm and face. Red stripes started to show as more and more skin dissolved into particles. He had fangs, she could see that now and... her eyes widened, a part of a sharp teethed bone mask, just like the one those monsters wore that had appeared in Karakura last summer! She remembered that clearly, Ichigo had acted so strange and just disappeared for weeks together with Orihime, Ishida and Chad. But why was Hjouru wearing one and where did it come from? His torso that had been covered with a T-shirt was now free from it, but not the bandage, it was still wrapped securely around his upper body and his PJ trousers had turned into chalk white hakama pants.

Was he going to kill her? Even if she screamed no one would come, Goat-shin was out buying supplies, Yuzu wasn't home and neither was Ichigo or Rukia. The picture slipped from her unresponsive fingers and floated around in the room from the wind that had entered the room from the still open window.

**xxx xxx xxx**

The teacher wondered what had gotten into some of her students when several of them went rigid in their seats and looked worriedly through the window from where they sat. Ichigo had nearly risen from his seat completely, it looked like he was prepared to bolt any second.

'_Why is Hjouru's reiatsu acting up? And...'_ he shuddered involuntarily _'why is it dark like those two times?'_ Just thinking on the nasty feeling made his skin crawl uncomfortable. _'Thinking about it, Hjouru's been depressed lately, especially today; ever since he got that call this morning from Urahara he's been in a bad mood... Huh? His reiatsu disappeared? No it's still there... whatever happened he's calm now.'_ Ichigo sat down in his seat again when it registered that nothing was wrong anymore. _'Maybe he was just stressed...'_

**xxx xxx xxx**

Isshin on the other hand had rushed home as fast as his feet could carry him while carrying the medical supplies. If he could he would've changed into his shinigami form and flash stepped, but seeing as he had neither gikongan nor the seal of approval, he was thus stuck in the body. He didn't know what Hjouru was capable of in that state of mind he was now, and Karin was home all alone!

When he finally reached the house the offending pressure had long since disappeared and left Hjouru with his normal reiatsu... albeit a bit gloomy nowadays and Karin was fine too, a bit shaken it seemed, but safe and sound otherwise. It made him breath out a sigh of relief as he put down the supplies and walked up to his "son's" room, just to make sure that everything in fact was fine. And true enough, both Hjouru and Karin was sitting on the bed talking about some photograph in the boy's hand. They hadn't noticed him, not before and not after he had sneaked away.

**xxx xxx xxx**

Just as suddenly the pressure had appeared it had vanished without a trace, leaving Karin wondering if it had occurred at all. Judging by Hjouru's uneven breathing, his clothes that slowly returned to normal and how he was spellbound to the picture on the floor, not to mention her own panting for breath and sweaty skin, yeah, it really had happened. When had her legs failed to bear her weight anyway? She looked at Hjouru, still quite shaken and scared of him, would he snap again if she made a noise? Before she could form any form of word Hjouru had collapsed onto his knees and started at the photo with thick tears running down his cheeks, wailing softly.

Karin couldn't stand how heartbroken he looked and carefully crawled over to him and hugged him tightly. At the beginning he tried to push her away, but she refused to let go and comforted him by whispering softly in his ear that everything was going to be fine over and over again. When he well had calmed down she helped him over to the bed, lowered him slowly so he sat steady and handed him the picture, then she sat down next to him. She didn't say anything, it was up to Hjouru to break the silence when he felt like speaking.

"H-how... how did you get this?" He asked with a broken voice, his eyes never leaving the photo in his hands, like he was afraid that if he looked away just one second it would be gone.

Karin bit her lip, how was she going to explain that without bringing up to much pain? "On the internet... in a news article." A pause, and now to the part where she didn't know how to express herself. "The article was about... a family that got murdered in the beginning of August 1889... that's why it isn't in colour. It's you on the photo isn't it? The little kid clutching the man's pants leg." She smiled when she said the last part, how could she not? He was so cute there, holding his father's left leg smiling at the camera, his two older siblings standing between their parents and his youngest sister resting in their mother's protective arms. They looked so happy there, so who could've done such a cruel thing as massacre them?

"...Yeah... it's me... That's Riku." He said and pointed at the small girl in the woman's arms with fondness, a sad smile plastered on his face, tears threatened to spill over again.

"And the others? Can you tell me their names too?" Karin asked, she already knew their names, but she wanted to hear him say them. But what she hadn't expected was to see him clutch his head and wail loudly.

'_I can't. I can't... I don't know... what are their names?'_ "I.,, I can't remember. I know that Riku is my little sister... that those two are my elder siblings and that's dad... and that's my... mother." It was more self rambling than an actual answer to her, but Karin didn't mind, she knew he was stressed and laid a comforting hand on his right shoulder. To her surprise he didn't notice, he was way to upset about the names and his mother it seemed. _'He really loved them... but I don't like how he stares at the woman in the picture.' _She was brought out from her thoughts by Hjouru's voice and what he said really freaked her out.

He half yelled half whispered whatever come to his mind."It's her _fault! _She's the cause of this! Not me, not my fault. If she hadn't, if she hadn't, then, then everyone would be okay now..."

"Hjouru!" No answer, "Hjouru!" still no response so she snapped her fingers in front of his face, making him look at her, but it was like he couldn't see her. "Hjouru, what wasn't your fault?" She asked hurriedly.

Eyes still distant and dull he started mumble again. "It's not my fault their dead! It's not, it's not! I would never, not willingly!" He clutched his head, tears running wildly. "It's not my fault... not mine it's _hers_!"

Karin looked at him with wide worried eyes. "Hjouru, you're not making any sense! Who killed them?"

He raised from the bed and stood in front of her. Something dark had come over his eyes as he peered down on her. She could see awareness and pain in his eyes when he looked directly into her own. With a calm and steady voice he said, "I did."

"W-what?"

"You heard me, I did it. I was the monster who killed my family! But it was _nothing _I could do to stop it."

Karin was shocked to say the least. "How can you say that you killed them, but that it wasn't your fault?" _'And how the hell can he be so damn calm about it, when he was hysteric before?'_

"That you could thank my "_dea_r" mother for, hadn't she decided to get rid of me, nothing of that would've happened." He said darkly, with his back turned to her.

"Get rid of... you mean your mother tried to kill you?"

He sighed and walked back to the bed, picking up the picture resting on the pillow and sat down. "And she succeeded..." He said sadly, looking at his little sister again.

"Why are you here then? Why didn't you pass on? Ghosts usually have a good reason why they can't rest in peace... And you're corporal; I can touch you and feel warmth like you were alive... how come?"

"You'll have to understand, I was stuck there, those chains shackled me there, I couldn't escape and it hurt! I was forced to watch and feel how she stabbed my dead body over and over again! But it was after she stabbed the heart that I lost it... I turned into... into that thing and killed them all!" He had become restless during the speech and was now passing back and forth across the room. He didn't try to hide the fact that he was crying, the tears just kept on streaming down. "While she deserved her faith the others didn't! And Riku, oh God, she knew it was me! She tried to make me stop, but I couldn't, I couldn't recognise anyone. I only had the unbearable pain and the need to kill and taste blood... And, and, it felt better for a short time after I killed, so I killed again and again." He looked hard at his own hands in disgust, "I can still see and feel the blood I spilled on my hands, and they will always remain soiled, no matter what I do." He closed his hands in anger, "Monsters like me deserves to die, especially after what I nearly did to Ichigo... but still... I don't want to die and Raya don't deserve that faith either... I don't know what to think anymore, Karin, I'm so confused." He finished and sat down yet again on the soft bed. "...I feel lighter... why's that?"

Karin patted him on the shoulder again, "Sometimes we need to talk out about what's bothering us, and it makes us feel better in the end. So how many have you told this?"

"...Just you and Raya... why so surprised?"

"I thought Ichi-nii and Dad knew."

"They just know the basics; what I am, what I want and where my loyalty lies. Speaking of loyalty, there's this bastard out there wanting to use all inhabitants of Karakura to create a key called the Kings Key. He doesn't like your brother or his friends, his family is probably no exception even if he never met you. You and Yuzu need to be careful; the bastards name is Aizen Sousuke. He might try and use you two to get to Ichi and Isshin, so please be careful. It was he who made me attack Ichigo, oh I want to rip that son of a bitch to pieces for what he forced me to do!"

"I don't understand... who is this person? and the Kings Key? What's that?"

Isshin and Ichigo didn't want to drag in you or Yuzu into this, but I think you're way better off by knowing what's going on around you. So I'll tell you everything I can think of." And so he did, never stopping, explaining about the Hollows and their habits, the Shinigami and what they did, what an Arrancar was, even going over the Espadas briefly, everything of import that he could remember. Then Yuzu called them down for food.

"Will you eat with us?" Karin asked, she hadn't noticed how fast the time had gone or how hungry she was until now.

"Sure, it sounds really nice."

The rest of the family wondered what had occurred that day to make Hjouru so happy compared to his earlier behaviour, it was very welcomed though, so no complaints there.

**xxx xxx xxx**

_Next day..._

"So do you know why Urahara-san would like to meet us all, Ichi?" Hjouru asked curiously while they were making their way towards the Shoten, Rukia had left earlier and was already there by now.

"Nope. Not a clue."

"But did he have to use a balloon filled with God knows what to get us going, there is something called a phone!" Just thinking on the messy message made him shiver, that had looked like something from a crime scene and then the weirdo had the stomach to say they had no sense of humour. Yuzu had screamed when she first saw it, thinking it was blood, but luckily Isshin was home and explained his friends antics. He suddenly remembered something Isshin briefly mentioned not long ago and he smirked evilly, laughing darkly. "Hey Ichi, is it true that Rukia slept in your closet when you first got your shinigami powers?"

The dark blush adoring Ichigo's face told him the answer immediately, but he felt like torturing the berry in forcing him to say it aloud. "Y...yeah... she did..." He did not like how the Arrancar looked at him, it was most unsettling. "Why you wonder?"

"Oh, no reason, just that you're always seen together, you like each other and she slept in your room, so... did something happen if you get my meaning?" He said blinking to the embarrassed berry, who looked ready to strangle something, in this case Hjouru.

"Why you little...!" And he took menacing steps towards the shorter teen.

"Eheheh... no need to get so drastic, no harm done, right?" And he took off running towards their destination. Ichigo wasn't far behind shouting "Get back here!"

* * *

**So that was that, sorry for the lack of action and most of 'em are probably out of character, the good news is that it ain't that much left now ^^ ,I think it's two normal chapters left and possible one Epilouge, then it's done and I can consentrate on other fics I want to write.**

**Next chapter will be called "Abducted"**

**Rviews are always welcome, good for motivation and they makes me happy.**

**Until next time, take care! :D**


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